In Chapainawabganj, three parties tell three stories about fertiliser. The district office of the Department of Agricultural Extension says there is no shortage. Dealers say allocations fall short of demand, so not everyone can be served at once. Farmers say they cannot get what they need even after queuing at midnight, while retail shops sell TSP, DAP and MoP to anyone who pays extra.
On Tuesday, 6 October, at least 500 farmers crowded a dealer point at Debinagar Boardpara in Sadar upazila to buy at the government price, Ajker Patrika reported. After a long wait without fertiliser, angry farmers argued with the sub-assistant agriculture officer on duty and eventually pushed him out of the dealer point.
Khairul Islam, a farmer from Debinagar, said that even queuing from three in the morning does not get him enough: dealers take national ID cards and hand out one or two sacks a month, while his land needs five or six. Basar Ali said retailers charge Tk 200 to 800 extra a sack for TSP, DAP and MoP. Niamul Haque of Gomostapur said going from shop to shop adds travel and transport costs, and fertiliser applied late is costing him crops.
Farmers in Nachole, Gomostapur, Bholahat and Shibganj make the same complaints. Farmers recently protested at the Gomostapur upazila compound over fertiliser they could not get, and in Bholahat a dispute over a queue at a dealer point turned into a beating.
Md. Atikul Islam, deputy director of the district agricultural extension office, said this is not the work of a syndicate: because allocations are lower than demand, not every farmer can be given what he needs at the same time.
Munjer Alam, general secretary of the district farmers' association, said fertiliser management in the district is weak and poor coordination among the fertiliser, seed and monitoring committees is making it worse. Unless farmers' real demand, dealers' allocations and market supply are matched and monitored, he said, farmers will face shortages even when the government has allocated enough.
Photo: Shahidul Hasan Roman / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Ajker Patrika
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