Emergency measures to provide urea

The Ministry of Agriculture has issued directives to provide a maximum of two sacks of urea (100kg) to all farmers to tide over the temporary shortage in the market.

Maha season harvests have been affected owing to climate change and there has been an unexpected increase in demand for urea in December, says a letter from Agriculture Ministry Secretary B Wijayarathne to Director Agriculture Services Development, Director General Mahaweli Development Authority, Regional Agricultural Officers and several others. As a result, there was a temporary shortage of urea in the market.

To meet this demand, the Ministry has decided to purchase urea from private suppliers and to distribute this equitably among all farmers. Cabinet approval has been secured for the plan. The Government has set a controlled price of Rs2,500 per 50kg bag of urea.

The letter instructs farmers to make their requests through regional agricultural centres around the island. These should be authorised by the Regional Officer and District Deputy Additional Commissioner and should be handed over to the National Fertlizer Secretariat Office.