Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to organic farming has led to an economic disaster

Re:Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to organic farming has led to ... by pueblito on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @10:07AM (#28445041)

I am a commercial organic farmer. I have trouble sourcing something every year and I live in the United States and have resources available to me to afford exotic things like potash from Alaska or pathogens to kill grasshoppers. If it’s a wet spring and I need more pest mitigation I can have a hundred guinea hens mailed express for $200.

I’m poorly traveled and ignorant of Sri Lanka but I believe it’s a very poor country where $200 is a lot to ask for let alone luxuries like pest pathogens, ag netting, soil testing etc etc… And if you don’t have all that, then going organic is going to absolutely destroy yields and you cannot have a modern society if everyone is farming

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Re:Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to organic farming has led to ... by quanto on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @01:09PM (#28447200)

How could one order a hundred guinea hens for $200 shipped? Is this a birds-as-a-service model where you rent birds for farming? A genuine question.

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Re:Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to organic farming has led to ... by pueblito on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @02:10PM (#28447900)

Here’s an example. The guinea hens eat the bugs and aggressively chase rattlesnakes out, and then coyotes and hawks eat the hens. Like most things it’s a mixed blessing because the snakes keep the rodent and rabbits population in check.

https://www.metzerfarms.com/GuineaFowl.cfm

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Re:Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to organic farming has led to ... by MomoXenosaga on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:24PM (#28446636)

I frequently buy organic produce and it is consistently more expensive. I am willing and able to pay for it but even in rich Western countries organic farming is a tiny niche.

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