Plantation Ministry to lobby for glyphosate usage under controlled environment

By Chathuri Dissanayake 

Plans are afoot in the Plantation Industries Ministry to allow controlled usage of glyphosate as a weedicide in tea plantations with plans to phase it out within the next five years. 

A Cabinet paper outlining a system of ‘strict control conditions’ for importing the chemical and a system to monitor usage after distribution is to be presented in the next couple of weeks, Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake said yesterday.

The Cabinet paper will also take into account the recommendations given by the expert committee appointed by the Prime Minister to investigate the issue. 

Highlighting that commercial agriculture is unable to sustain without the use of weedicide due to costs involved, the Minister said that he has made representations to both the President and the Prime Minister regarding the concerns brought to him by stakeholders in the industry. 

“The tea plantation companies have recorded a reduction in the produced. The ban of the weedicide has been one of the reasons for the reductions. Manual removal of weeds is not possible due to labour shortages and the high costs involved. Other alternative weedicides are too expensive as well. This is the best cost effective option,” Dissanayake said. 

According to him, total tea production in 2015 has dropped to 300 million Kg from 310 million in 2014, and in 2016 the production has further dropped to 2018 million Kg. 

With plans to phase out the use of the substance the Minister said research is being carried out at present to devise an organic solution to remove weed plants in commercial agriculture lands. 

“We have made progress in our research and we expect to come up with an organic solution within the next two to three years,” he said. 

Dissanayake also stressed that no direct link has been established to determine that glyphosate causes the Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Origin (CKDu) by scientific community. He also said although plantation companies concentrated in Nuwara Eliya District and Ratnapura Districts have used Glyphosate heavily over the years, prevalence of the disease is low, leading to assumption that the substance may not be directly linked to CKDu. 

“The World Health Organization (WHO) only states that the substance may be a contributor. The WHO also lists red meat as a contributor, but people have not banned red meat. In other countries in Europe also they are lifting the ban on the chemical as nothing has been proven,” he said. 

The Minister also insisted that the weedicide is available in the market even after the ban as a smuggling network has been established from India to Puttalam. 

“Even though we have a ban, glyphosate is still available in the market. This is smuggled from India by boat. It is worse than lifting the ban as we have no control or monitoring mechanism to see how this is being used now. Instead of a total ban we should have controlled usage of it, so that the illegal market does not thrive,” the Minister highlighted. 

Stressing that the move to allow controlled imports of the chemical is an exception to the ban in place since 2015, Dissanayake said that he has to ensure that the plantation industry is protected working within the framework of the current Government.