Second shipment of urea fertilizer arrives

The ship that brought 22,000 metric tonnes of urea fertilizer to Colombo, on Sunday.

The second ship carrying 22,000 metric tonnes of urea fertilizer arrived at the Colombo Port on Sunday (13) afternoon.

This is the second shipment that arrived under the financial allocation of US$ 105 million given by the World Bank to buy the urea fertilizer needed for paddy and maize crops this Maha season.

The ship carrying urea fertilizer has arrived from Malaysia. Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera instructed Lanka Fertilizer Company and Commercial Fertilizer Company to start unloading fertilizer from this ship from today.

According to Commercial Fertilizer Company Chairman Jagath Perera, arrangements have been made to start the unloading of fertilizers from 8.00 pm tonight.

Currently, the amount of urea fertilizer received for this Maha season under the World Bank loan is 35,000 metric tonnes. Out of the 65,000 metric tonnes of fertilizers purchased under an Indian loan scheme last Yala season, 34,000 metric tonnes of urea fertilizer remains. The same amount of fertilizer has been distributed to all the agricultural centres for the first shift of urea fertilizer in paddy cultivation in the Maha season.

On November 28, another ship of urea fertilizer will arrive in Sri Lanka and in the first week of December, a ship carrying 40,000 metric tonnes of MOP (Muriate of Potash) fertilizer is scheduled to arrive in Colombo.

Also, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will hand over 700 metric tonnes of urea fertilizer to the Agriculture Ministry to be given to low-income farming families in eight districts, today (15).

Agriculture Minister Amaraweera requested the farmers to start farming without any fear as they have got the opportunity to plant paddy and maize without any shortage of urea or MOP fertilizer, as they will get the full amount of fertilizer required for this Maha season.