Chemical fertiliser allocations in Rajshahi are much the same as last year, but the shortage refuses to ease. Agriculture officials say farmers are buying early to stock up before the potato season, rumours are driving purchases that are not needed, some people are using political influence to draw extra fertiliser, and some dealers are hiding stock. On top of all that, the district's roughly 50,000 fish ponds are taking a share of the fertiliser allocated for crops.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, the district's September allocation is 5,186 metric tonnes of urea, 1,045 tonnes of TSP, 1,629 tonnes of MOP and 3,015 tonnes of DAP. Last September it was 5,067 tonnes of urea, 1,073 tonnes of TSP, 2,521 tonnes of DAP and 1,609 tonnes of MOP — almost identical for the same point in the season.

Even so, farmers in many parts of the district have been standing in line for hours since early August. On Monday, 7 September, protesters blocked the highway at Baneshwar in Puthia upazila demanding a bigger allocation. A dealer in Godagari who hid fertiliser in his godown to sell elsewhere at a higher price was jailed for a month on the night of Tuesday, 8 September, and 500 sacks were seized from him.

The district has 185,262 hectares of cultivable land, alongside about 50,000 ponds on roughly 18,000 hectares. Fisheries officers advise applying urea and TSP to ponds to grow natural feed for fish. District Fisheries Officer Jahangir Alam said each pond needs 10 grams each of urea and TSP per shatak per day, which comes to a monthly requirement of 1,334.37 metric tonnes of urea and the same of TSP; the fisheries department submits its annual requirement to the ministry.

Mostafa Kamal Hossain, deputy director of the district agricultural extension office, said there is no separate allocation for ponds; their demand is met out of the fertiliser allocated for crops, which he considers one of the main reasons for the shortage. On that arithmetic, if 1,334 tonnes of September's 5,186 tonnes of urea go into ponds, 3,852 tonnes are left for crops — and the entire TSP allocation of 1,045 tonnes cannot even cover the ponds' 1,334 tonnes. Ponds do not need DAP or MOP.

Divisional Commissioner Yusuf Ali inspected the BADC godown at Nowdapara in the city on the morning of Tuesday, 8 September. He said the BCIC buffer godown holds 9,804 tonnes of urea, 430 tonnes of TSP and 85.5 tonnes of DAP, and the BADC godown 6,312 tonnes of TSP, 801 tonnes of MOP and 4,348 tonnes of DAP. Allocations follow the demand the agriculture department has calculated for the month, he said, and there is no shortage in the district.

Potato planting starts in Rajshahi next month and needs comparatively more fertiliser. Unless pond demand is counted separately in the allocation, the tug-of-war between crops and fish for the same sacks is likely to sharpen as the potato season gets under way.

Source: banglanews24