Pakistan, a predominantly agrarian economy, lacks investment and poor infrastructure that renders much of the country’s agriculture produce uncompetitive in the global market, said Dr Rasheed, a former director general at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute.
“Despite the increased use of fertilisers, there is no increase in productivity, making it a matter of great concern. Farmers’ unawareness on the use of balanced fertilisers is rendering the soil infertile,” said Dr Rasheed.
“The use of nitrogen in the agricultural fields has increased exponentially, while the trend is continuously decreasing in the case of phosphorus and potassium which is a clear depiction of imbalanced use of fertilisers.”
He added that the reasons behind the increasing use of nitrogen was the low cost of urea (nitrogen source) compared to DAP (phosphorus source).
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2014.
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I also found similar research results among farmers in Mardan, KPK around 2009 regarding their use of phosphorous fertilizer. My data showed that primary obstacles to fertilizer use include the ability to obtain credit and lack of agricultural knowledge on best management practices.