The Hon. K. Sujith Sanjaya Perera

¶ 01 Madam Chair, I am pleased to speak on this important Head of Expenditure. The Ministry of Plantations and Community Infrastructure covers key sectors driving development and foreign exchange – notably tea, coconut, rubber, and several minor export crops.

¶ 02 Let me raise an important issue about tea. Smallholder tea producers, who contribute about 75 percent of tea exports, are in distress. Currently, they receive around Rs. 150 per kilogram of green leaf. At that price, they cannot sustain their livelihoods.

¶ 03 Due to the previous government’s ill-advised ban on chemical fertilizers, smallholders suffered greatly, and they have still not recovered yields to prior levels. Even after lifting the ban, many cannot afford fertilizers. While paddy and some plantation crops get fertilizer support, I ask: what about smallholder tea? At the Advisory Committee on Plantation and Community Infrastructure, the Tea Board Chairman said support was being arranged. Some assistance of Rs. 6,000 worth of fertilizer is being given in places, but not consistently to all smallholders.

¶ 04 A tea acre requires at least about two and a half fertilizer “mitti” (sacks) – about 125 kg – to obtain reasonable yields. Today, many must buy at Rs. 9,000–11,000 per sack in the private market, which they cannot afford. The two state-linked fertilizer companies – Lakpohora and Commercial Fertilizers – cannot meet total demand. Therefore, I propose that a portion of the subsidy funds be extended to private fertilizer companies as well, enabling them to sell to smallholders at concessionary rates. This would help revive the tea industry.