Farmers in Sarail, Brahmanbaria, allege that fertiliser is being sold openly and covertly above the government price. By holding stock in warehouses to create an apparent shortage, sellers are charging Tk 400 to Tk 1,000 more per bag, they say, and the upazila's fertiliser is in the hands of a few influential people.

According to the agriculture office and local sources, transplanted Aman has been planted on about 6,870 hectares in Sarail this season. The government price is Tk 27 a kg for urea (Tk 1,350 for a 50 kg bag), Tk 27 for TSP, Tk 20 for MoP and Tk 21 for DAP (Tk 1,050 a bag).

Yet farmer Nazir Mridha of Suryakandi village in Kalikachchha union said he bought TSP at Tk 40 a kg (Tk 2,000 a bag) from a shop at Border Bazar, where urea was Tk 35 a kg. Sirajul Islam of Nandipara bought TSP at Tk 2,000 a bag and urea at Tk 1,600 at Kalikachchha bazar, and says the seller abused him for quoting the correct price. Md Mahfuz Mia of Sarail Sadar paid Tk 1,900 for a bag of DAP. Farmers say sellers give no receipts, or write only the official price on a blank sheet.

In 2009 Sarail was assigned 16 BCIC and 16 BADC dealers; the list shows 32 dealers and 79 sub-dealers, but only 5-7 dealers are active and just one or two lift fertiliser. The four firms tagged to Chunta, Kalikachchha and Shahjadapur unions give their address as Ashuganj ferry ghat and have never had an office in Sarail. Farmers also allege irregularities in sub-dealer appointments - several members of one family, two to four dealers at one point, residents of one ward acting as dealers for another.

Sarail upazila agriculture officer Md Ekram Hossain, member-secretary of the fertiliser and seed monitoring committee, admitted some sub-dealers were overcharging. There is no provision for selling above the set price, he said; monitoring is under way with an executive magistrate, and he has written to higher authorities about the four non-existent Ashuganj dealers.

Upazila nirbahi officer Mir Kamruzzaman Kabir, who chairs the committee, said a seller caught overcharging at Shahbazpur on 14 September was fined Tk 20,000 on the spot, and sub-assistant agriculture officers in the unions had been told to keep watch at all times.

Reported by the Sarail (Brahmanbaria) correspondent of Manab Zamin.

Source: Manab Zamin