COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has banned the import of organic fertilisers from China after authorities detected harmful bacteria in them for the second time, reports said.

According to IANS, Director General (DG) of Agriculture, Ajantha De Silva, urged the government to cancel the fertiliser contract with China.

He also insisted that he would not allow organic fertiliser with harmful bacteria to enter the country, according to the IANS report.

Sri Lanka was to import 99,000 metric tonnes of organic fertiliser at a cost of $63 million from China’s Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co Ltd, it said.

Agriculture scientists in Sri Lanka, on September 17, found that China manufactured organic fertilisers contained a microorganism identified as ‘Erwinia’.

Agriculture experts warned that China’s organic fertiliser importation would create an agricultural disaster in the island nation, IANS said.

The Agriculture Ministry too confirmed this later but the Minister alleged that the samples which came to Sri Lanka could have been tampered, it added.

Fresh samples of China’s organic fertiliers were brought to Sri Lanka and the DG Agriculture said that the new samples, too, were infected with bacteria.

With an ambitious plan to go full organic, Sri Lanka has stopped importing chemical fertilisers and induced the farmers to make their own organic fertilizer, according to the report.

(With inputs from  IANS)