With fertiliser supply running normally, Nilphamari has reached its Aman planting target on schedule. The district agriculture office set a target of 113,220 hectares, and by Tuesday 113,205 hectares had been transplanted. The district has 124,396 hectares of farmland, the rest under vegetables and spices, and 528,004 farm households.

August demand for the Aman and other crops was 6,379 tonnes of urea, 588 tonnes of TSP, 1,861 tonnes of DAP and 1,968 tonnes of MOP, and all of it was supplied. September's demand of 3,156 tonnes of urea, 220 of TSP, 2,008 of DAP and 1,077 of MOP was also fully allocated; after distribution, stocks on Tuesday stood at 1,916 tonnes of urea, 89 of TSP, 700 of DAP and 590 of MOP. The district's 206 dealers — 44 in Sadar, 34 in Saidpur, 31 in Domar, 32 in Dimla, 35 in Jaldhaka and 30 in Kishoreganj upazila — are distributing normally.

At the Poddar Brothers dealership in Palashbari bazar on Tuesday afternoon, staff stood ready for about an hour without a single farmer arriving to buy. Proprietor Nishit Kumar Poddar said ten farmers had collected fertiliser between morning and 2.45 pm and every reasonable request was met. He received 1,820 sacks of urea, 67 of TSP, 223 of potash and 187 of DAP in August, and 920 of urea, 23 of TSP, 124 of potash and 238 of DAP in September, and issues two sacks of urea and one of each other fertiliser per farmer.

He observed that farmers are asking for TSP even though Aman fields do not need it after transplanting, out of unfamiliarity with the crop's requirements. No farmer has left his point empty-handed, he said, but cropping has grown more intensive while allocations have stayed the same, and a balanced allocation matched to cropping intensity is now overdue.

Ramzan Ali, 50, a farmer in Itakhola union who planted three bighas, said he bought and applied fertiliser on time without any trouble. He wanted TSP 22 days after transplanting and found the domestic "Bangla TSP" unavailable, though other companies' TSP was on sale.

Based on BSS's Nilphamari report. Source: BSS