ECONOMYNEXT – Indian Air Force has deployed C-17 Globemaster military transports aircraft to relieve Sri Lanka farmers badly hit by a sudden ban on chemical fertilizer, which was relaxed to allow some nitrogen fertilizer was allowed in.
Sri Lanka banned chemical fertilizer in the wake of intense lobbying the Government Medical Officers Association and the Buddhist monk Athureliye Rathana, but relaxed the import of nano nitrogen fertilizer amid farmer protests and fears of crop losses.
“The C17 Aircraft operations were coordinated in close liaison with Sri Lanka Air Force,” the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.
“The quick deployment of IAF aircraft and expeditious disembarkation overnight was indicative of close coordination between the two services.”
The two IAF C-17 Globemaster aircrafts had landed at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport with 100,000 kilograms of Nano Nitrogen.
“The Government of India has continued to support Sri Lanka in times of critical requirement as part of its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity and role as the ‘First Responder’ in the region,” the statement said.
Sri Lanka’s GMOA has claimed according to Pliny the Elder, a Roman author who lived about two thousand years ago, residents of the island had lived about 140 years, and their life expectancy now has halved to around 74 years after chemicals came in to use. (Colombo/Nov03/2021)