Farmers in Sri
Lanka are up in arms against
low-priced agricultural
imports from India that
have flooded the country's
markets. After prolonged
protest campaigns against
the duty-free potato and
chilli imports from India, the
government of the island
nation has imposed a 10 per
cent levy on chillies. This,
however, has not appeased
the farmers.
With the Sri Lankan
commerce ministry's permission, the markets were
flooded with cheap Indian
farm products even as the
local products remained
unsold. This even drove a
farmer to commit suicide
at Eppawala, 170 km northeast of Colombo, triggering
heated protests by chilli farmers.
They considered the 10
per cent duty on Indian chillies a late move. "The farmers
will have to wait for a considerable period until the
imported stocks are exhausted and then only, they will be
able to sell their products,"
Said a spokesperson for the
Rajarata Farmers' Organisation (RFO).
The RFO spokesperson
contended that "prices should
be brought down by an efficient system of marketing
coupled with proper storage
system and not by asking the
poor farmer to enter into an
unfair competition Nvith the
foreign products." The Rajarata area in the North Central province alone produced over 50,000 tonne of dried
chillies in the past season.
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