Farmers say, 'Only 10 to 15 kilos have been provided for a family by setting a quota, if the required fertilizer is not received immediately, the paddy crop will be damaged'.
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According to government data, chemical fertilizers are littered in the warehouses of salt trading and agricultural materials companies. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, there is 11 thousand 583 tons of salt and 49 thousand 129 tons of agricultural materials. With this balance, the paddy crop will not need to be fertilized. But in practice, farmers are facing shortage of fertilizers to plant rice.
Even after rice planting has started, one family has received only 8-10 kg of subsidized fertilizer. The same complaint has been received from all districts from Bardia, Dhading, Makwanpur, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Nuwakot, Chitwan,'' says Sarita Bhusal, General Secretary of All Nepal Kisan Federation, "Farmers have suffered every year because the government has not brought fertilizer." She said that they started charging double the price from the farmers in case of shortage. "Farmers are forced to pay 2,100 to 2,500 rupees to buy a bag of urea fertilizer," she says, "Fertilizer shortage is a problem every year, but the government could not provide a solution."
A bag of subsidized urea (50 kg) costs Rs 750 at Biratnagar, Birgunj and Bhairahawa stations. A DAP bag costs Rs 2,200. Potash costs Rs 1,600. After that, the local government determines the price by adding the shipping charges. Farmers are complaining that private traders are selling the fertilizer at high prices due to non-supply of government fertilizers on time.
"Now there is shortage of fertilizer everywhere, middlemen have charged more prices from farmers in case of shortage," says Panchkaji Shrestha, President of Farmers Group Federation of Nepal.
Fertilizer quotas are determined by the provincial government according to the chemical fertilizer vendor arrangement procedure. The municipality distributes the quota. Accordingly, fertilizers are distributed to farmers through cooperatives. Due to problems in the distribution process, not all farmers received it on time.
According to government statistics, about 1.1 to 1.2 million tons of chemical fertilizers are required for all crops annually. Even though only 7 lakh tons of chemical fertilizers can be provided on an average, there is no complaint from the general public. But the government has provided only 3.5 to 4 lakh tons of fertilizer on an annual average. As a result, farmers say that there is a shortage every year. Government subsidized fertilizers are being transported by agricultural material companies and Salt.
In the current financial year, 27.95 billion budget has been allocated to buy subsidized fertilizers. The target is to purchase 550,000 tons from that amount. Even if the same quantity is tendered, there is no improvement in the supply situation. 3 lakh 63 thousand 236 tons of fertilizers have been imported till June 12, along with the volume of the last financial year. Of the imported quantity, there is 60,700 stock in the government warehouse. Co-General Manager of Salt Trading Kumar Rajbhandari claims that there will be no shortage of fertilizers for paddy crops. "There is a certain quantity of stock, and the process of coming along with it continues," he says, "After all the fertilizers come, there will be no shortage for the rice crop."
According to the ministry, 34,000 tonnes of urea fertilizer from agricultural materials and salt trading has arrived in Kolkata. An additional 30,000 tons of agricultural materials are being loaded from the country and coming to Kolkata. Likewise, 22,000 tons of salt's urea is coming to Kolkata after being loaded from the source country.
Agriculture Minister Ramnath Adhikari says that all these fertilizers will not cause any harm when they arrive in Nepal. "Now there is a demand for fertilizer for both rice and maize at the same time, the government has some amount of stock, there is some problem because it could not come from Kolkata," says the Minister Adhikari.
