Fertilizer crisis; protests continue across Sri Lanka

COLOMBO (News1st): A demonstration demanding a solution for the fertilizer crisis was held at the Pituwala junction in Galle today. The protest was organized by the National Federation of Small Tea Estate Owners. "They have lead the tea industry into utter chaos," a farmer involved in the protest said. Farmers of Welimada, Pitapola, and Kudupilithenna also staged a protest demanding fertilizer. "We cultivate potatoes without fertilizer. We don't have either chemical or organic fertilizer," a protestor lamented. Famers complain that the harvest reaped from the fields of Olu Wewa in Anuradhapura has dwindled drastically. "Only 1500 kilos of paddy is being produced from a hectare that once produced a harvest between 7000 and 8000 kilos," one farmer pointed out.