Do you want to know how a ban on pesticides and fertilizers can lead to a change of government? The news reports that the protesting population seized the residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The usual reasons are the economic crisis and the impoverishment of the population.
Here are unusual reasons for these reasons. And although the news is usually called a fall in income due to a decrease in tourists, the reason for what is happening must be sought elsewhere. Having come to power, Gotabaya Rajapakse announced that the country would stop using mineral fertilizers and switch to the good old organic ones. Renowned ecofeminist Vindana Shiva inspired the president to “but before it was better.”
For many years he has been denouncing the “green revolution” and fighting for its fruits. The green revolution is, in a nutshell, a rapid increase in yields thanks to hybrid varieties, mineral fertilizers and pesticides. It was the use of the latter that made it possible to drastically increase yields, reducing the number of hands that cultivated the planted areas. You understand, it is one thing to manually collect Colorado beetles, and another thing to fly over the field in the “corn”, generously scattering dust from the sky.
As a result, the president’s decision prompted Sri Lanka, an exporter of rice, Asia’s most important grain, to start buying it. And the promise of saving money on the purchase of fertilizers was fulfilled in the first agricultural season due to stocks in warehouses. The following season it turned out that the rice harvest fell by almost half, and the country that used to sell is now forced to buy rice. As a result, its price within the country has grown by half. Along the way, the harvest of other crops also fell colossally.
As for organic fertilizers, it should be understood that their effectiveness is obviously lower compared to mineral ones. In the case of Sri Lanka, it also turned out that the share of animal husbandry here is small compared to crop production. That is, the required amount of dung simply has nowhere to come from, not collecting dung behind the elephants?
As a result, the experiment lasted only a couple of years, and in November 2021, the president overturned (and even here, only partially) his own decision to ban the import of fertilizers and pesticides.
However, no, this is not the end result. The bottom line is that a resident of a fairly prosperous island a couple of years ago, mired in poverty and starvation, is now taking to the streets and the Sri Lankan government may well change in the near future. This is what happens if you don’t use fertilizer!
I wonder if Mrs. Vindana Shiva has any regrets.
However, there are fewer tourists in Sri Lanka and more attention will be paid to them. If you are interested in seeing the wonders of Ceylon, Yandex Travel will help you
Do you want to know how a ban on pesticides and fertilizers can lead to a change of government? The news reports that the protesting population seized the residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa….
I think almost everyone sat down to watch YouTube or their favorite series, taking a snack and a drink, leaving drinks and food next to the laptop. Food crumbs won’t do much harm to a laptop, but…
There are still a number of constructivist residential complexes in Moscow, I try to visit each one while I have the opportunity. The neighborhood “Sushchevka” was built in 1927-1929 according to the project…
On the Internet you can find a wide variety of tips for washing in a washing machine, for example: how to learn how to use washing modes correctly, what kind of detergent and in …
Ethiopia is the only African country that survived the European attack and did not become a colony. Europeans have repeatedly tried to colonize this East African country, but…
According to The Sun, an unusual new trend featuring emoji dogs is gaining popularity online at tremendous speed. In which the average user is invited to solve a fairly simple problem at first glance…
Source: IXBT
