Plantation Industries Ministry Secretary J. A. Ranjith said the ministry had devised a systematic plan to ensure that glyphosate permitted for use in tea and rubber plantations were not released for other agricultural crops in the country.

“Accordingly a decision had been taken to collect data about the total extent of tea and rubber plantations and the number of applicants involved before issuing the glyphosate chemical to users in the estate sector”, he said. “Although the ban on glyphosate had been lifted on tea and rubber by Gazette Notification dated July 11 distribution had still not taken place”, he said.

He said distribution would commence on August 15 according to the exact requirement.He said The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation would handle the issuing of glyphosate to large scale tea and rubber estates.