There will be no shortage of fertiliser until December with the country's current stocks of urea and non-urea fertiliser, said Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"There is no reason to worry about fertiliser until December," he said.

He gave the information on Sunday during a view-exchange meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture with the executive committee of the Bangladesh Agriculture Reporters Forum (BARF).

BARF president Rafiqul Islam Sabuj, general secretary Kawsar Azam, finance secretary Aynal Hossain, office secretary Faruk Ahmad Arif, training and research secretary Shawkat Ali Palash, and executive members Munna Raihan and Horlal Roy Sagar were present.

"Demand can be met until December with the current fertiliser stocks. However, there is still some difficulty in opening LCs for fertiliser imports, which we are constantly working to resolve," the agriculture secretary said.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, current stocks stand at 4 lakh 61 thousand tonnes of urea, 3 lakh 22 thousand tonnes of TSP, 3 lakh 57 thousand tonnes of DAP and 4 lakh 37 thousand tonnes of MOP.

The secretary said incentives for farmers affected by the floods were being given in several phases. "So far we have allocated Tk 193 crore to support farmers, which will be used in phases for agricultural rehabilitation," he said.

He said that although more than 14 lakh farmers in 23 districts were affected by the floods, the heaviest damage was in 11 districts, and most of the incentives are aimed at farmers in those districts. Seedbeds of transplanted Aman have been prepared on all unused land of the agriculture department in the affected districts and neighbouring ones, and the seedlings will be distributed among Aman growers.

Under the rehabilitation programme, 80,000 small and marginal farmers in nine districts will each receive free high-yielding transplanted Aman seed to cultivate one bigha, fertiliser support (10 kg) and Tk 1,000 in cash through mobile banking, the secretary said.

He added that 1.5 lakh farmers in 22 districts will be given seeds of various vegetables and Tk 1,000 each to grow early winter vegetables around their homesteads.

Meanwhile, 14,14,089 farmers were affected by the floods caused by hill runoff from upstream and continuous heavy rain between 16 and 30 August. The crops lost amount to about 10 lakh tonnes of production, including rice, vegetables and fruit, worth Tk 3,346 crore. In all, 3 lakh 72 thousand 733 hectares of land were affected.

Affected farmers are receiving paddy seed, seedlings, fertiliser and cash support. Once the floodwater recedes, a final damage report will be prepared and further rehabilitation programmes will be decided accordingly, the agriculture secretary said.

Asked whether the floods would cause a food shortage in the country, the secretary said there would be no food security crisis if Boro production next season went without problems. "So our target now is a good harvest in the coming Boro season," he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.