Farmers are facing shortages of urea fertilizer when it comes to planting food crops including wheat, mustard, lentils, pulses and oilseeds, and major vegetables including potatoes.
What you should know
Farmers who have already brought in their paddy crop are preparing to sow wheat and plant vegetable crops. But farmers and sellers are also stressed due to lack of fertilizer. There is currently an acute shortage of urea fertilizer in the Far West.
Now is the time to plant food crops such as wheat, mustard, lentils, pulses and oilseeds, and major vegetables such as potatoes. But farmers are frustrated due to lack of urea. Madhu Chaudhary, a farmer from Badhara, Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City-3, said that he was stressed due to lack of fertilizer until the time for planting the balanoli started.
Dabal Bahadur Bogati, a farmer from Bhajani Municipality-9, Kailali, said that he had to plough his fields empty due to lack of fertilizer. 'We don't know when the fertilizer will arrive.' Farmers always have a problem with fertilizer,' he said.
The bodies responsible for supplying and distributing fertilizer in the Far West are the Agricultural Materials Company Limited and the Salt Trading Corporation Limited. Currently, both bodies do not have urea fertilizer. ‘After the DAP was disrupted, there is no urea,’ says Ramchandra Joshi, assistant at the provincial office of Salt Trading Corporation Limited. ‘When and in what quantity it will arrive, we cannot say anything now. It depends on when the center sends it.’ Salt Trading and 70 percent of the fertilizer quota received by the Far West are received and sold by Salt Trading and 30 percent by Agricultural Materials Company.
Navsingh Bogati, head of the provincial office of the Agricultural Materials Company, Dhangadhi, said that they are trying to start selling fertilizer from next Tuesday. ‘We will start selling as soon as we have enough stock to sell 125 metric tons daily,’ Bogati said. ‘Only 150 metric tons have arrived till Thursday.’ The company’s provincial office has been selling and distributing fertilizer to farmers in districts except Kanchanpur and Doti. The company has its own offices in Kanchanpur and Doti.
According to Bogati, the head of the provincial office, fertilizer is imported from Bhairahawa in the Far West. The office has stated that the Far West has a quota of 9.22 percent urea and 9.07 percent DAP in the total fertilizer imported into Nepal.
In the last fiscal year, the company's Dhangadhi office was able to sell 12,843 metric tons of urea and 8,647 metric tons of DAP. 'This is not even half of the total demand,' says Bogati, the head of the office, 'there is a demand of around 30,000 metric tons of urea and DAP annually.' Farmers bring stolen fertilizer from the Indian border area to avoid fertilizer shortage. 'This year, fertilizer has not been available in the market in the Indian border area either,' said a farmer from Kailari.
The company has currently fixed the price of DAP at Rs 4,773 per quintal and urea at Rs 1,873 per quintal. The company has been selling fertilizers to private sector traders and cooperatives by setting quotas instead of selling directly to farmers.
There is a provision for farmers to buy fertilizers from dealers after the company provides agricultural inputs. In this way, when assigning dealers, at least two dealers are assigned in a ward on the recommendation of the relevant local level, says office chief Bogati. 'We have assigned about 400 dealers throughout Kailali district,' he said, 'We have assigned 47 dealers in Dhangadhi.' Bogati says that the quantity of fertilizers provided to a dealer is not certain. He said that it is done as per the recommendation and price determination of the local level ward office.
