Steps needed to ensure adequate fertilizer during the Boro season

The conflict in the Middle East began at a time when farmers in the country’s northern region have started the Boro sowing season.

The ongoing conflict has led to growing concerns about the supply of urea fertilizer, an essential component of agricultural production.

Bangladesh has always been dependent on imports to meet its needs for fuel, the driving force of the industrial sector, and fertilizer, the lifeblood of the agricultural sector.

Uninterrupted supply of fertilizer is required for high yields in the country’s ongoing Boro season and the upcoming Rabi season. The country produces the most food grains during this period.

There is a fear that insufficient fertilizer stocks will pose a risk to food security.

To avoid this risk, the government now needs to prioritize increasing fertilizer stocks and ensuring continuous supply of the product.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, there are currently about 1.8 million tons of fertilizer stocks in the government warehouses.

Whereas the country’s total demand for fertilizer in the current fiscal year could be 6.9 million tons.

More than 70 percent of the total chemical fertilizers used in agricultural cultivation and crop production in the country are used only in the Boro and Rabi seasons.

Meanwhile, production at three of the five urea fertilizer factories in the country has completely stopped due to lack of gas.

About 80 percent of the country’s total fertilizer demand is met through imports.

However, there has been a slowdown in imports as well.

As a result, concerns have been raised about the required supply of fertilizer for the upcoming Rabi and Boro seasons.

According to the government, there is no shortage of fertilizer. BADC has said that there is not enough space to store fertilizer in the warehouse.

However, the concerns of the common people at the field level are giving a different message.

Farmers complain that dealers are charging exorbitant prices by pretending to be an artificial shortage of fertilizer.

A big question is why urea is not reaching farmers despite purchasing fertilizer from the international market and providing at least 60 percent subsidies.

The problem is that even though the government sets the price, a class of unscrupulous traders is increasing the price of fertilizer per bag, seeing the poor supply chain.

We need to get out of this culture. This is the expectation from the new government, that farmers should get adequate supply of fertilizer during the production season.