Agriculture and Agri-Tech Economy & Growth

Sri Lanka bypasses QR restrictions for agriculture

Sri Lanka’s Department of Agrarian Development has rolled out a special fuel distribution system for farmers, bypassing standard QR code restrictions, to maintain food security officials said.

“We initiated a mechanism to provide fuel for agricultural activities without the QR code,” Commissioner General of Agrarian Development, Dhammika Ranatunga told reporters.

“Currently, fuel is issued based on the recommendations of our regional officers.”

Under this new “recommendation-based system”, farmers no longer need a digital code; instead, they can obtain fuel based on direct verification from divisional officers.

When the government introduced the QR code system, there was a fuel requirement for agricultural activities, he said, with harvesting taking place in many areas for the Maha season, while in some other areas, land preparation for the next season had begun.

For harvesting activities, a quota of 15 liters per acre has been allocated, while 10 liters per acre are provided for land preparation and plowing.

Ranatunga added that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is also working on a dedicated QR system for large-scale farms that require a daily fuel supply for heavy machinery and water pumps.

“A need arose for fuel for other agricultural tasks, especially water pumps and other farm machinery. However, it is difficult to state a specific amount for those, as the fuel requirement is determined by the nature of each machine. Based on those needs and our officers’ recommendations, we began issuing fuel for those machines.”

Source: Economy Next