{"id":108287,"date":"2020-11-03T00:36:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T06:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108287"},"modified":"2020-11-02T17:36:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:36:09","slug":"monlars-fear-mongering-claim-currently-released-fertilizer-being-of-low-quality-and-high-in-heavy-metals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/03\/monlars-fear-mongering-claim-currently-released-fertilizer-being-of-low-quality-and-high-in-heavy-metals\/","title":{"rendered":"MONLAR’s fear-mongering claim: \u201ccurrently released fertilizer being of low quality and high in heavy metals\u201d."},"content":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharmawardana, National Research Council of Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

According to a news report (Island,\n2-11-20), Mr. Chinthaka Rajapaksa, who is said to be the moderator of an\norganization known as  the Movement for\nLand and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR)\u201d claims \na high probability that the fertilizer currently released to the market\nwere of low quality and high in heavy metals<\/strong>, as the National Fertiliser\nSecretariat had stopped testing samples at local labs\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that these labs are currently\nnon-functional because of the Covid crisis, and so foreign labs are used. Testing\nhas not stopped<\/strong>. The non-analysis and lack of testing of compost\nfertilizers are  ignored by MONLAR as\nthey  are tacitly supported by\nMONLAR!  Here I will show that even if\none of the world’s worst rock phosphates, e.g, Nauru phosphate from New Zealand,  containing very high amounts of heavy metals\n(occurring naturally)  were imported, it\nwill still have NO TOXIC effect if applied to Sri Lankan soils for agricultural\npurposes. This is based on the research I have published in peer-reviewed\njournals. For instance, Mr. Rajapaksa should consult  my publication in Environmental Geophysics\nand Health<\/em>, August 2018  https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10653-018-0140-x<\/a>\nwhere a detailed discussion is found. Here we will explain all this more simply\nin the following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, \nfirst we must look at the political agenda of MONLAR itself. Although I\nam not aware of the current political \nstrategy of MONLAR in detail, I personally knew some of the initial\nfounders of this movement. They were Marxist militants who decided to launch a\nmovement  to capture and control the\npeasant farmers and convert them into a revolutionary political force\u201d.  A key tactic was to rouse the farmers into\nopposing  big capitalist agricultural\nmulti-nationals\u201d and their genetically modified (GM)  products and seeds. Imported fertilizers sold\nby capitalist multi-nationals\u201d were also targeted. The opposition to GM\nproducts and high-yielding hybrid seeds led them to  back traditional seed varieties\u201d. These\nyield about a fifth of the harvest from modern hybrid seeds created by the rice\nscientists at Bathalagoda and other research Institutes. They were the real\nunsung heroes who have kept the exponentially increased population of the nation\naway from famine since World War II<\/em>. \nA return to traditional seeds will mean a return to shortages, famines,\nand re-importing milchaard haal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But MONLAR and other backers of\ntraditional seeds\u201d and compost fertilizers etc., are either mesmerized by false\nclaims and fake science, or are cynically using them to further their political\nagendas. They want to negate the good work our scientists. Even the Minister\nPathirana seems to have  been tragically\nmislead into presenting a motion for traditional seeds\u201d in place of hybrids\n(Island, 02-11-20). The motion states that this Parliament resolves \u2026(to)..\neducate the public on the nutritious value of the traditional, local rice\nvarieties available in the Sri Lankan market at present, of the new rice varieties\nconsumed at present, and of the varieties of rice that should be consumed<\/em>\nby people with various diseases, and also to provide facilities for farmers to\ncultivate those varieties of paddy.\u201d So the minister wants to cure diseases\nwith rice, while 30% of  kids come hungry\nto school! Unfortunately, it is the minister who has to be educated. This\nmay be a case where the minster’s scientific and medical advisors dare not\ncontradict the minster and put him right<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition to  imported fertilizer led these groups to\nsupport the use of compost whose composition and quality are never subject to\nanalysis. But MONLAR rushes to claim that imported triple phosphate is full of\nheavy-metal toxins profiting from a lapse in local testing due to an epidemic!\nThis cry had already found resonance with the Natha Deviyo\u201d group led by Ms.\nSenanayake of Hela-suvaya\u201d together with \nDr. Nalin de Silva, then at the Kelaniya Science faculty, and Ven.\nRathana, then an MP from the JHU. They claimed that many illnesses, e.g., Kidney\ndiseases in the Rajarata, are caused by arsenic and other toxins in imported\nfertilizers and herbicides, even though these claims were, and are now found to\nbe completely contrary to exhaustive investigations by several independent\nresearch groups. For instance, strong evidence now suggest that the Rajarata\nKidney disease is contracted by people who drink water from wells containing\nexcessive amounts of fluoride and hard water, both of geological origin (See:\nImbulana et al., Science of the Total Environment<\/em>, 2020, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2020.140716<\/a>\nand references therein ); in contrast, \nthose who drink water from agricultural canals, rivers and tanks\ncarrying fertilizer  runoff are free of\nthe disease!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do I say that even if one of the  cheapest and worst available\u201d mineral\nphosphates, e.g., Nauru phosphate were used in agriculture, it will have no\neffect on our health? Let us consider this in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As) and lead (Pb)\nare some of the dangerous metal toxins found in minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will take the example of Cd, as the\ndiscussion for other toxins follows the same lines. Nauru rock phosphate\ncontains some 90 mg of cadmium per kg of phosphate, where as a more expensive\nphosphate fertilizer may contain less than 20 mg of cadmium per kg of\nfertilizer. European green\u201d activists who are much like their counterparts in\nSri Lanka have clamored for lowered amounts of cadmium (and other such toxins)\nin fertilizers imported to Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us consider that we imported the Nauru\nphosphate that has been used in New Zealand, and containing some 90 mg of Cd\nper kilo of rock phosphate. A farmer usually applies some 30 to 60 kg of\nphosphate fertilizer per hectare of land in planting rice, depending on the\nsoil.  The fertilizer is ploughed into\nabout a depth of  about 8-12 inches\n(20-30 cm). Taking a figure of 30 cm depth in a hectare of land, the 60 kg of\nfertilizer containing  60 x 90 mg (i.e.,\n0.54 g) of cadmium are dispersed in a soil volume of 3000 cubic meters, or\nabout 3900 metric tonnes of soil of density 1.3 g\/litre. So,  0.54 g of cadmium are dispersed in this\nvolume of soil, increasing the soil cadmium concentration by a mere 1.38\nnanograms\/kg, i.e., 1.38 parts per quadrillion. This is an utterly minuscule\namount as the ambient level of cadmium in the soil may be as high as 0.4 mg\/kg\neven in virgin forest soil (Chandrajith and Dissanayake  2012), and this is similar to values known\nfor  European soils.  NO LEACHING what ever was assume even in\nestimating the 1.38 parts per quadrillion, and of course this is not true. The\nmonsoonal rains can wash off many many times more than the 1.38 part per\nquadrillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when MONLAR claims that substandard\nfertilizer probably containing dangerous levels of toxins is being imported to\nSri Lanka and that no chemical analysis is done, this is just fear-mongering\nand nothing else. The calculation that I presented needs only a knowledge of\nsimple arithmetic and MONLAR, claiming expertise in agriculture should be able\nto do this before raising alarms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This does not mean that EXCESS USE of\nfertilizer does not pollute the environment. The excess phosphate fertilizer\ngets washed off into the aquatic ecosystem via rivers and canals and create\nAlgal blooms and weed growth. They de-oxygenate the water and asphyxiate\naquatic organisms. The seasonal increase in phosphate levels in the Rajarata\ntanks is given in Table 1 of a research publication that I authored with other\ncollaborators in  Environmental\nGeochemistry and Health: Volume 37, Issue 2 (2015). This applies to macroscopic\ncomponents like phosphates contained in the fertilizer, but NOT to the\nmicroscopic components (trace amounts) like Cd, As, and Pb. The metal toxins\nlargely come into the environment from other sources (e.g., mining, burning of\nfossil fuels, acid rain, burning garbage, smoking cigarettes etc)  as discussed in relevant publications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandre Dharmawardana, National Research\nCouncil of Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharmawardana, National Research Council of Canada According to a news report (Island, 2-11-20), Mr. Chinthaka Rajapaksa, who is said to be the moderator of an organization known as  the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR)\u201d claims  a high probability that the fertilizer currently released to the market were of low quality and high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}