The Bangladesh Fertilizer Association (BFA), which represents importers and dealers, has blamed dealers appointed by the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) for much of the country's fertiliser turmoil, Desh Rupantor's staff reporter writes. At a press conference at its Bijoynagar office in Dhaka on Monday, chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain said in a written statement that after 2009 some 5,200 seed dealers were made fertiliser dealers without regard to the rules; they distribute the non-urea fertiliser BADC imports and have played a key part in overpricing and shortages nationwide.

When BCIC appointed dealers in 1995 the security deposit was Tk 2 lakh, the association said, whereas BADC's seed dealers were made fertiliser dealers in 2009 on a deposit of only Tk 25,000 and without scrutiny; most of those now caught in irregularities under the current surveillance are BADC dealers. Senior vice-president Mamunur Rashid and other leaders attended.

The government has announced a Tk 1 a kg rise in dealers' commission, but Mosharraf Hossain said: "When electricity, fuel, labour and every other cost is rising, the government raised it by just one taka against our demand of four. That too is a carrot on a stick, because it will take effect from July next year." Even that taka, if applied now, would have helped calm the market, he said.

Asked by reporters, he said the agriculture ministry had ignored the association's advice when the turmoil was at its height and had refused extra allocations, even though fertiliser is also used outside farming; now that extra allocations are being made, management has improved and the problems are easing.

Meanwhile the government is implementing a new policy to appoint a dealer in every union and municipal ward, which the BFA wants suspended until the commission structure and what it calls the inconsistencies, unconstitutionality and contradictions of the Fertiliser Dealer Appointment Policy 2026 are settled. The association filed a writ on 2 September and the High Court issued a 60-day rule, yet appointments continue through district fertiliser and seed monitoring committees, it alleges. Its leaders want existing dealers represented on the appointment committees, warning that wholesale political appointments would hurt the government because the work needs competent, business-minded people.

Source: Desh Rupantor — Reporting: Staff reporter