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Last amendment: Import restrictions on chemical fertilisers and agrochemicals repealed after the organic-only policy caused crop-yield collapse and food-security concerns; imports of chemical fertiliser and agrochemicals re-permitted without the earlier prejudice. on 2021-11-30.
Gazette Extraordinary No. 2226/48 of 6 May 2021, issued under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act No. 1 of 1969, added mineral/chemical fertilisers and a set of agrochemical product lines to the Special Import License schedules. Chemical fertilisers were banned outright; agrochemicals (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, anti-sprouting agents and plant-growth regulators) required a Special Import Licence to clear customs. The regulation applied to consignments with bills of lading or air waybills dated 6 May 2021 or later, and covered 9 HS headings (16 items at the HS8 level for chemical fertilisers alone).
The instrument gave regulatory force to the government's April 2021 policy announcement that Sri Lanka would transition to 100% organic agriculture, framed domestically as both a foreign-exchange conservation measure and a public-health response to Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu), which had been linked in domestic debate to agrochemical use.
within one growing season as organic-fertiliser supply could not substitute at scale, contributing materially to the food-security and foreign-exchange pressures that fed into Sri Lanka's 2022 sovereign default.
restructuring (see sri-lanka-imf-eff-post-default-restructuring theme) but predates it and is not itself part of that programme.
where a restrictive measure was fully reversed within a single calendar year of enactment.
(secondary reporting cites "gazettes... repealed from November 30" without giving the instrument number); flagged for verification if a primary repeal notice surfaces.
displaced during the ~7-month ban) not disclosed in sources reviewed.