Small tea state holders in the Balangoda area continue to complain that the yield of green leaves that can be harvested from tea plantations has decreased due to the lack of chemical fertilizers for tea cultivation.
They say that there is no chemical fertilizer required for tea cultivation for several months now and as a result the yield of green tea leaves that can be harvested from an acre of tea has been reduced by half.
Tea farmers in the area point out that they had previously harvested between 600-800 kg of green tea leaves per acre using chemical fertilizers and with the introduction of organic fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizers, they were unable to harvest even 500 kg of green tea leaves per acre per month.
