COLOMBO: Farmers have turned to unauthorised alternatives after the country banned glyphosate. Tea farmers in Sri Lanka were calling on the Government to reauthorise glyphosate as soaring costs, falling production and residues from alternative chemicals hit exports to key markets.
The country banned glyphosate in 2015 after lobbyists blamed it for causing chronic kidney disease in workers.
But industry chiefs disputed the link and said the ban has made working on tea plantations dangerous, increasing the amount of poisonous reptiles and insects on-farm.
