Farmers in Kurigram are still struggling to get fertiliser. With every farmer in a union sent to a single dealer point, the district has seen chaos, road blockades and assaults on agriculture officials almost every week. A meeting chaired in the deputy commissioner's conference room on Sunday, 20 September, in the presence of Rangpur divisional commissioner Shahidul Islam, had decided to add ward-level registered retailers to the dealers' warehouses — but that has not happened.

Most recently, on Tuesday 22 September, farmers at Natun Anantapur in Hatia union of Ulipur set fires and blocked the road after the dealer and a sub-assistant agriculture officer left on seeing the crowd. On Sunday, farmers in Ghogadah in Sadar upazila beat a sub-assistant agriculture officer over delays. On 18 September another officer was confined for four hours at Ballabherkhas in Nageshwari, and on 16 September angry farmers broke into a dealer's warehouse in Char Rajibpur and took fertiliser. Similar incidents took place in Rowmari on 7 September and Bhurungamari on 23 August.

At a BCIC-approved dealer point in Panchpir Bazar, Durgapur union of Ulipur, on Tuesday, one sack was being shared among five farmers and many still went home empty-handed. Ruhul Amin, a farmer from the Jamuna area, said he had come for three days without success; he had brought his five brothers' ID cards but was told all five had to come in person. “My crop is finished and so is my day's labour,” he said.

Farmers say they stand in line for hours, often leave without fertiliser, and lose a day's wages each time. They used to buy what they needed from retail shops. BCIC dealer Ramzan Ali agreed: last year fertiliser was distributed through retailers too, he said, but this year it goes only through dealer points, so the whole union gathers in one place.

Ulipur upazila agriculture officer Shahidul Islam acknowledged that although ward-level distribution through retailers was decided, it has not started, and fertiliser is still given only from dealers' warehouses. The same is reported from other upazilas.

Deputy commissioner Annapurna Debnath, who chairs the district fertiliser and seed monitoring committee, blamed negligence and lack of interest among field-level agriculture staff. She said the deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension had been transferred over the disorder, and ward-level distribution is being introduced in phases.

The episode shows how a distribution method, rather than a shortage of allocation, can leave farmers queuing for days even after extra allocation.

The report was filed by Ariful Islam Rigan, Bangla Tribune's correspondent in Kurigram.

Source: Bangla Tribune