{"id":119379,"date":"2021-10-19T17:02:24","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T00:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=119379"},"modified":"2021-10-19T17:02:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T00:02:24","slug":"the-presidents-holistic-decision-on-the-banning-of-chemical-fertiliser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/19\/the-presidents-holistic-decision-on-the-banning-of-chemical-fertiliser\/","title":{"rendered":"The President\u2019s holistic decision on the banning of chemical fertiliser?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chandre dharma-wardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In spite of all this information and\ngood advise from all the leading scientists of Sri Lanka (see recent articles\nin the Island by Dr. M. Dhanapala, Prof. Costa, Dr. Waidyanatha, Prof. Marmbe\nand many others), we have Ranjith Soysa writing the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The President\u2019s holistic decision\non the banning of chemical fertiliser is, indeed, a step in the right\ndirection, which will bring expected results in the improvement in soil and\nwater quality and the general health of the masses<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the expected results<\/strong>? Where have such results\nbeen demonstrated”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. This is sadly, the continued failure to understand that\ncomposting and producing “Organic Fertilizer” will lead to the\nproduction of noxious green house gases like methane and CO2 in large quantities\nthat will further add to the runaway global warming that is already occurring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Ranjith Soysa living in the precincts of the great barrier\nreef may know that a tiny increase in ocean temperature will wipe out the\ncorals and most of the fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the effluent and rain run off  that results when\n100 tonnes\/acre of organic fertilizer is added to get the same effect as 20\nkg\/acre of mineral fertilizer is enormous and leads to removal of oxygen from\nthe aquatic ecosystem (rivers and streams) and its asphyxiation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislation has been introduced in, e.g., Massachusetts to\nseverely control organic farms because of this, even though organic farming is\nless than 2% of normal farming in US states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Venerable Ratana’s newest acolyte, namely\nPresident Gotabhaya has rushed into all this with the enthusiasm of a neophyte\nwho wants be “the first in the world to convert the country to 100%\norganic”. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is achievable, but at the cost of creating famine and\ncausing rural riots that he may have to put down with his beloved military.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That the population has to be cut down by at least half \nwas well known in the research literature. When Dr. Adrian Mueller of the Swiss\ninstitute for organic agriculture<\/strong> discussed going 100% organic in a research\narticle in Nature in 2018, he admitted that it will require a halving the\npopulation who will all have to be forced into being vegetarian, as pointed out\nvery clearly when I wrote a reply to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/dh-web.org\/place.names\/posts\/CD-Mueller-OrganicL.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claim that inorganic fertilizer will improve the general\nhealth of the masses is the sort of nonsense that is good for Dr. Padeniya and\nVen. Ratana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranjit Soyza also says: However, such a crucial decision\nwas not followed professionally to ascertain the availability of other\nnutrients, and enough supply of compost fertilizer to apply in the following\ngrowing season. The unscientific method of managing the subject gave\nopportunities to many to engage in public agitation against this holistic\ndecision”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Ranjith Soysa thinks that organic\nfertilizers are the way to go, but that its introduction has been mismanaged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is another popular myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if organic fertilizer\nproduction and the approach to organic farming had been properly managed, it\nwill STILL LEAVE THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE STARVING.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that Mr. Ranjith  Soysa\nwho has done good work in the fight against terrorism in Sri Lanka, and worked\nhard for the good of Sri Lanka, does not genuinely wish to support the creation\nof a man-made famine in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I believe he (and indeed many\nothers) had been strongly misled by the likes of Dr. Nalin de Silva and other\nideologues in these matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should remember that Gunadasa\nAmarasekera too was mislead to such an extent that he wrote a glowing preface\nto Channa Jayasumana’s  utterly unscientific and scandalous book “Waku\nGadu Hatana<\/em>“.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chandre dharma-wardana In spite of all this information and good advise from all the leading scientists of Sri Lanka (see recent articles in the Island by Dr. M. Dhanapala, Prof. Costa, Dr. Waidyanatha, Prof. Marmbe and many others), we have Ranjith Soysa writing the following: “The President\u2019s holistic decision on the banning of chemical fertiliser […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119379","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=119379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}