11 billion rupees has been spent on the importation of one hundred and twenty two thousand two hundred and seventeen metric tons of rice in the first two months of this year alone after the government’s green agrarian revolution the Customs Department sources said.
This has become a record as only 7.5 billion rupees worth of rice was imported entire last year.
According to agricultural sources, the government spends this amount of money on rice imports at a time when the country is in the throes of a foreign exchange crisis, as a result of arbitrary decisions taken on the country’s highest yielding agriculture.
“Every top agronomist in the country has scientifically predicted and pointed out this situation. What has happened is the result of not accepting those recommendations … ”. An eminent agronomist in the field said in an interview with us.
However, most of the rice imported during these two months is from India, which has a high agro chemical application. That amount of rice is one hundred and seventeen thousand four hundred and seventy one metric tons.
According to the Customs Department, 3490 metric tons of rice has been imported from Pakistan and 1125 metric tons of rice has been imported from Myanmar.
Countries that imported rice include China, Taiwan and Japan. However, answering a question in Parliament on last season’s harvest, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that the green agriculture program was successful and that the yield was generally around 20 percent less. In some places the yield was reduced by twenty-five per cent, but in most places the yield was reduced by only ten per cent.
