Disorder broke out over urea distribution in several parts of Kurigram district on Sunday, 20 September, with farmers briefly blocking roads. Officials of the upazila administration, the police and the agriculture department intervened, calm was quickly restored and distribution resumed under closer supervision.

From the morning, hundreds of farmers stood in long queues at dealer points in Matherpar, Ghogadaha and elsewhere in Sadar upazila. Anger spread over allocations smaller than what farmers said they needed and over alleged irregularities in the distribution; as tempers rose at several points, farmers blocked roads for a time. Upazila officials, Sadar police and agriculture officers went to the spots and spoke with them.

Nurul Haque, a farmer from Panchgachhi union, said he needed two sacks of urea but was being given one, and asked how he was to farm if he could not buy what he needed even for cash. Farmers demanded that supply be matched to demand during the aman season, warning that the disruption would otherwise recur.

Abdullah Al Mamun, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Kurigram, said there was no fertiliser shortage in the district, which held about 1,000 tonnes of urea above its requirement. He claimed a quarter was deliberately stirring up disorder to embarrass the government.

The district administration said monitoring at dealer points had been tightened to prevent irregularities. The confrontation, at the time of the urea top-dressing that follows aman transplanting, is the second road blockade over fertiliser in the district within a week; with stocks reportedly ample, the farmers' grievance is with how allocations are divided at the dealer points. The report is by Desh Rupantor's Kurigram correspondent.

Source: Desh Rupantor