At the height of the aman season, dealers and retailers in Koyra upazila of Khulna cannot supply the urea farmers need. Touhidul Sana of Amadi union planted aman on ten bighas and needed 100 kg of urea for the first application; after buying 40 kg he could get no more. The upazila agriculture office told him the shortage would last until this month's allocation was approved.
Ashish Roy, a retailer at Hatiardanga bazar, said he needs 100 sacks of urea a day to meet local demand but gets 20 to 25, and sometimes closes his shop to escape the pressure. Nirod Mondal of Nayani in Maheshwaripur union, who farms 20 bighas, said he and several others hired a trawler to bring fertiliser at a high price from another upazila. Farmer Shah Alam also paid more in a neighbouring upazila.
The upazila agriculture office says aman covers 16,000 hectares in Koyra this season. In September seven dealers were allocated 530 tonnes of urea, 350 tonnes of DAP, 115 tonnes of MoP and 6 tonnes of TSP, all lifted in two instalments. Sub-assistant agriculture officers say the shortage is worst in Amadi, Bagali and Maheshwaripur, where dealers have almost no stock.
Abul Hasan, president of the upazila fertiliser distributors' association, said the allocation is larger than last year's, but in the past shortfalls were made up by buying elsewhere; with tighter monitoring ending the black market, that is no longer possible.
Upazila agriculture officer Tilok Kumar Ghosh admitted that the allocation for the peak aman season is below need, so farmers get fertiliser at the government price but not in the quantities they need. His office has written to higher authorities for a larger allocation and a sub-allocation to cover the gap. Farmers fear for their aman yields if fertiliser does not arrive in time.
The report is by Samakal's Koyra (Khulna) correspondent Sheikh Harun-or-Rashid.
Photo: Malcolm Manners / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Samakal
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