The palm oil industry in Sri Lanka is in a major crisis as Rs.500 million worth of plants in nurseries are being wasted due to an unofficial planting ban.
Chairman Planters Association (PA), Sunil Poholiyadde said, “There is a ban in Sri Lanka which no one knows from where it originated and due this reason, we are unable to plant new trees.”
He said that whenever they start to plant the trees NGOs and environmental groups create a huge issue and even the police intervene and plantation companies are afraid to take the risk and carry on with the planting process.
Earlier the Cabinet has given approval to plant 20,000 hectares of palm trees in Sri Lanka and to date 11,000 hectares had been planted. Several plantation companies has also imported seeds and have created nurseries and these trees over two years of age are now overdue to be planted. The value of these plants in nurseries around is around Rs. 500 million and if they are not planted soon the trees would die a natural death.
However in contrast Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given permission to plant two million hectares of palm oil in India. “The PA had made several representations to the government but with no avail. We are planning to make another representation to President Maithripala Sirisena soon,” he said.
CEO, Watawala Plantations, Binesh Pananwala said that Sri Lanka currently imports palm oil to the tune of Rs. 30 billion annually. “Growing palm oil is more profitable than growing and maintaining rubber and palm oil plantations give three times the profit and use very much less labour.”
In Malaysia too palm oil is grown in over 5 million hectares of land for the past 25 years. And if there is climate or environmental issues, then Malaysia should be a desert by now,” Prof. Asoka Nugawela of the Agriculture Faculty of Wayamba University said.
Research has also found out that there are new species of fish in water near palm oil fields which proves that there is no contamination of water.
He also said that there is no waste generated from the produce of palm oil as the waste can be used to generate energy or can be used as fertilizer.
He said that the issue in Sri Lanka started when the Environmental Authority made a report and forwarded it to the government that there were adverse effect to the environment due to palm oil plantation.
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