The Ministry of Agriculture has decided to grant a fertilizer subsidy of Rs. 4,000 to support rubber cultivation across Sri Lanka, aiming to boost the country’s latex yield, which has seen a significant decline in recent years.
The Agricultural Ministry confirmed that the subsidy will be available starting this week, in response to concerns raised by the Sri Lanka Rubber Research Institute that the rubber cultivation has been hindered due to the lack of fertilizer application over the years, resulting in a drop in annual latex production from 100,000 metric tons to 65,000 metric tons.
To address this issue, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Mahinda Amaraweera has instructed the ministry officials to introduce a price reduction on a 50 kg bag of fertilizer for rubber cultivation.
Accordingly, the of price a 50 kg bag of fertilizer will be reduced from Rs. 9,500 to Rs. 5,500, according to the ministry.