Tea smallholders have criticised the government’s offer of 25,000 metric tonnes of subsidised fertiliser as woefully inadequate, saying it covers less than 60 percent of what is needed for a single application cycle.
Ushan Samarasinghe, president of the Galle-Kalutara Tea Smallholders Association, told the Sunday Times Business Times that the allocation amounts to an “incomplete subsidy programme” provided only once, leaving most growers without affordable access to inputs.
According to Tea Research Institute data, Sri Lanka’s approximately 267,000 hectares of tea cultivation require at least 120,000 MT of fertiliser annually across three application cycles — roughly 40,000 MT per cycle. The government’s 25,000 MT offer falls well short.
Because subsidised stocks are limited and available only to early purchasers, many smallholders miss out entirely. Samarasinghe said the distribution mechanism lacks transparency and fails to ensure equitable access across growing regions.
The criticism comes amid the government’s broader effort to shield farmers from rising fertiliser costs through a Rs. 7.1 billion subsidy package announced as part of the Rs. 100 billion relief programme. A separate QR-based fertiliser tracking system has enrolled 187,759 tea farmers, but smallholders argue the underlying quantity remains the core problem.
Tea smallholders also continue to shoulder extra costs linked to the wage structure of Regional Plantation Companies, further squeezing already thin margins at a time when tea prices have fallen for three consecutive months.
