‘It will be hard to find a farmer left’: Sri Lanka reels from rash fertiliser ban

Harvests have collapsed, and the way President Rajapaksa introduced the policy angered even organic farmers

Driving through the verdant landscape of Rajanganaya, a rural district in north Sri Lanka where the hibiscus flowers pop out of rich green foliage and the mango trees are already weighed down by early fruit, it is hard to imagine this is a community in crisis. Yet for many of those who have farmed this land since the 1960s, mainly with rice and banana crops, the past year has been the toughest of their lives.

If things go on like this, in the future it will be hard to find a farmer left in Sri Lanka," said Niluka Dilrukshi, 34, a rice paddy farmer.