Sri Lanka: An Organic Farming Lesson

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Sri Lanka's president said the country was bankrupt in July 2022 as a financial crisis ravaging the country deepened. There were a number of factors causing the problem: Analysts mention excessive government debt, lack of foreign exchange, political corruption, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other factors However, one of the most serious was the government's sudden order, in April 2021, banning all import of chemical fertilizers and requiring that all farming be organic within 10 years. The result has been drastically reduced crop yields, plummeting exports, rising imports, and skyrocketing inflation. ¹

Sri Lanka imposed a synthetic fertilizer and pesticide ban overnight

Until last year, Sri Lanka, a largely upper middle income island nation south of India was largely self-sufficient in food production. Much of the nation's success in agricultural production was, like most farms around the world, aided by the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Last year in an attempt to boost soil health and halt the progression of a kidney disease killing local farmers that was linked by some sources to agricultural chemicals, the president of Sri Lanka imposed a synthetic fertilizer and pesticide ban overnight. ² This led to a political and economic turmoil in Sri Lanka with an unlikely culprit: organic agriculture. Sri Lankan farmers were not allowed time or resources to transition their fields to organic practices, nor did the government provide access to natural fertilizers. Local production of natural fertilizes had not increased, and no extra nutrients were imported. Yields for the harvest immediately following the ban fell precipitously, between 20 percent and 70 percent depending on the crop. Rice yields fell by almost half, and key exports like tea, rubber and coconut plummeted. The New York Times reports, "Production of tea a major source of export revenue, fell some 18 percent and grain output dropped 43 percent. The government saved $400 million by banning foreign fertilizer, but was forced to spend $450 million to import rice. ³ According to AP, "The UN World Food Program says nearly nine of ten families are skipping meals or otherwise skimping to stretch out their food while 3 million are receiving emergency humanitarian aid." Overall food costs have risen by 50 percent."

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Sri Lanka's organic experiment failed because it does not have enough land to replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizer with animal manure

Although Sri Lanka's government reversed the ban in December, the government did not reinstate the subsidies that traditionally aided farmers in purchasing agricultural chemicals. Therefore, most farmers could not afford the fertilizers they had previously relied upon, and the cost of agricultural inputs skyrocketed due to scarcity. As a result, only a small fraction of the country's farmers fully planted their fields in the spring. The agricultural and economic turmoil across the country has turned into a perfect storm of food insecurity. The number of people in Sri Lanka needing urgent humanitarian help has doubled to 3.4 million, the United Nations has reported. ⁴ Vijay Jayaraj reports, "Around 90 percent of Sri Lanka farmers use chemical fertilizers. The percentage is even higher, 94 percent, in paddy cultivation. Persisting with the organic only farm policy is catastrophic to Sri Lanka's food sector and economy. Chemical fertilizer has been instrumental n helping farmers there and across the globe to increase production and achieve a sustained source of income. Further, as yield per acre falls due to organic only farming, farmers will require more land to achieve the same total harvest." ⁵ Bjorn Lomborg has pointed out that Sri Lanka's organic experiment failed fundamentally because of one simple fact: it does not have enough land to replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizer with animal manure. To shift to organic and keep production, it would need five to seven times more manure than its total manure today. ⁶ For agriculture to be truly sustainable, the sector must center its practices across farmer livelihoods as well as their quality of life. In this case, the Sri Lankan government's creation of haphazard, overnight declarations without providing adequate access to planing resources, organic agricultural inputs or educational materials quickly became a recipe for disaster. ²

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References

1. E. Calvin Beisner, Sri Lanka: canary in the environmental coal mine," cornwallalliance.org, July 12, 2022
2. Mary Riddle, "How Sri Lanka became embroiled in an organic farming crisis," triplepundit.com, July 12, 2022
3. "A reckless dynasty has brought calamity to Sri Lanka, The New York Times, July 11, 2022
4. "UN warns of worsening food crisis in Sri Lanka amid economic woes,"aljazeera.com, November 8, 2022
5. Vijay Jayaraj, "The perils of idolizing organic farming in Sri Lanka, cornwallalliance.org, September 10, 2021
6. Bjorn Lomberg, "How to alleviate the looming global hunger crisis," cornwallalliance.org, June 8, 2022