Commissioner General of Agrarian Development Dhammika Ranatunga has assured that there is no cause for concernregarding delays or non-receipt of fertilizer subsidies for the ongoing Maha cultivation season.
Speaking to the media, Ranatunga emphasized that the Department of Agrarian Development has sufficient funds to fully implement the subsidy scheme.
He noted that the fertilizer subsidy program for the Maha season was launched on November 31, providing each paddy farmer with a financial subsidy of Rs. 25,000, distributed in two phases:
- First phase – Rs. 15,000: Released following the Seasonal (Kanna) Meeting, once the list of eligible farmers is finalized and submitted to the Agrarian Service Centre.
- Second phase – Rs. 10,000: Issued after verifying that paddy cultivation has begun on the respective plots.
The initiative aims to support 1.4 million farmers, covering approximately 800,000 hectares of paddy land. The government has allocated Rs. 20 billion for the program.
Ranatunga further revealed that Rs. 1.976 billion has already been disbursed to 211,974 farmers under the subsidy scheme to date.
