Farmers associations from all across the province have strongly criticised government’s skewed fertiliser policy, which is helping profiteers in minting money from poor farmers. Wheat Growers Association President Chaudhry Hamid Malhi, Livestock Farmers and Breeders Association Director Mohammad Amin Chattha, Punjab Water Council Director Farooq Bajwa, Farmers Associates of Pakistan Director Rabia Sultan, Basmati Growers Association Director Aman Ullah Chattha, Kinnow Growers Association President Hamid Saleem Warraich, Multan Mango Growers Chairman Maj (retd) Tariq Khan pointed out that the government imported some 0.8 million tonnes of urea during Kharif 20011 and imported another 0.9 million tonnes for Rabi crop. Government had announced imported urea price at Rs1,300 per bag and local urea plants were offering Rs1,600, but farmers were getting urea fertiliser at Rs1,750 or at even higher rate due to absence of price control.
It seemed, they said, government was conniving profiteers in minting money from poor farmers. It did not seem mindful of the fact that despite heavily subsidising urea government could not benefit poor farmers. They suggested that government should not sell imported urea at subsidised rate if it could not control prices in domestic markets.
They believe that it would not only stablise fertilisers prices but also curb black-marketing, besides saving Rs5 billion which was being wasted in wrongly planned subsidy. Representatives of a numbers of farmers associations strongly rejected unnecessary subsidy, which had proved counterproductive.
They further demanded independent inquiry and release of the names of all beneficiaries who got benefited from this ill-planned subsidy.
Fertilisers prices
An exorbitant increase in fertilisers’ prices has dramatically reduced fertiliser usage by 25-35 per cent during current Rabi season. Agri Forum Pakistan President Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal has warned that reduced fertiliser usage could easily compromise Rs100 to Rs150 billion agriculture produce. In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Mughal pointed out that urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) usage shrank by 25 and 35 per cent respectively, in comparison to the previous Rabi season. He indicated that farmers used some 1.3 million tonnes of urea and 0.564 million tonnes of DAP fertiliser, which had been dropped to 0.975 million tonnes and 0.363 million tonnes during current Rabi season, respectively. In addition, potassium fertiliser witnessed a drop of over 48 per cent during the same period.
