The Hon. Asoka Sapumal Ranwala

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, when speaking of agriculture, soil health is paramount. Fertile soils deliver better yields; degraded soils increase disease, contaminate water, harm animals, and ecosystems. The State’s policy must be to conserve soils, maintain soil biota, and apply science. While Governments have intervened on crops, soil responses were often not scientific. Farmers themselves, with real knowledge, organized around organic concepts and low-pesticide fruit and vegetable cultivation to protect soils. The Department of Agriculture has researched Good Agricultural Practices to improve soils; globally, sustainable and regenerative agriculture aim to conserve soils, achieve higher yields with lower inputs.

¶ 02 From 2024, this Government intensified farmer training and soil-focused interventions. Data show: Sri Lanka recorded its highest-ever Yala harvest—about 2.2 million metric tonnes in 2025 Yala—while fertilizer use declined. Historically, we assumed higher fertilizer increases yield; but today, traditional synthetic fertilizers like urea, TSP, and MOP are being replaced in part by improved formulations and better soil management. The fertilizer subsidy per hectare was raised from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000; farmers, managing their budgets, have reduced synthetic application while maintaining or increasing yields through improved fertilizers and soil amendments—transitioning to compound and fourth-generation fertilizers, and adopting improved varieties.

¶ 03 Highland vegetable farmers—who do not receive paddy subsidies—have long applied large quantities of manure and shifted from classic urea/MOP/TSP to improved fertilizers alongside soil enhancement, achieving good yields. National fertilizer imports averaged about 880,000 MT over 2017–2020 (667,000 in 2017; 1,213,000 in 2018; 723,000 in 2019; 940,000 in 2020). They reduced to 750,000 MT in 2023; to 540,000 MT in 2024; and in 2025 Yala, to about 421,000 MT—a 46 percent reduction—while harvests rose. These figures are from Agriculture Department statistics, Treasury, and Central Bank reports.

¶ 04 Further, per the Australian High Commission’s MDF data, use of improved fertilizers, initially in a handful of sites in Maha 2023, expanded to roughly a hundred sites by Yala 2024. As with the Department’s historic shift from traditional to improved seed varieties, we are seeing a transformation in inputs and practices—better soil preparation, reduced agrochemical loads, higher technology—delivering higher yields with less fertilizer. The 2026 Budget charts this regenerative path toward a healthier soil, protected biodiversity and water systems, and sustainable productivity.