Farmers unable to get Rs37b fertiliser subsidy

Delay due to lack of consensus on disbursement mechanism between ministry and provinces

ISLAMABAD:

The fertiliser subsidy worth Rs37 billion for farmers has been delayed as the national food security ministry and provinces have not yet developed consensus on the disbursement mechanism.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved a subsidy package of Rs37 billion for fertiliser.

However, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has not been able to build consensus with the provinces on the disbursement mechanism. The ministry has been working closely with all stakeholders including the industry and importers to finalise details.

The Special Committee of the National Assembly on Agriculture, headed by the NA speaker, also took interest in the fertiliser subsidy issue. The delay in disbursement had brought fertiliser sales to a grinding halt, till the decision was taken to exclude nitrogenous fertilisers from the subsidy, said industry sources.

They added that thereafter urea sales picked up and the huge inventory was cleared by the end of June, standing at just over 400,000 tonnes.

However, farmers and dealers were reluctant to purchase phosphatic and potassic fertilisers. Both cotton and rice crops have been deprived of the subsidy benefits.

Discussions on the disbursement of fertiliser subsidy with provinces have remained inconclusive as Sindh has yet to come up with any alternative other than the disbursement through manufacturers and importers, who are not inclined to agree, because they have not received previous payments of the 2016-18 subsidy scheme.

Officials suggested that Sindh should also adopt the scratch card system, introduced by Punjab, which provided the farmer purchasing fertiliser bag a scratch card with a unique number in the bag.

The farmer then has to send the code via SMS to the given number, after which the system matches the CNIC number of the cellphone user to confirm which province the sender is from, and will reply with a code to receive the payment through easypaisa.

“There is no chance of misuse of subsidy as the commodity has no other use,” said the officials, adding that some people had insisted on the registration of farmers, which was not a must as there was no chance of diverting the subsidy for any other purpose.

Sources said the food ministry had been able to arrive at a consensus with three provinces - Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan - on subsidy disbursement.

They hoped that Sindh would also follow the same for the benefit of farmers. The subsidy scheme should commence at the beginning of Rabi sowing season so that it could continue for at least two seasons, sources said, adding that the farmers suffering locust attack could be given a relief of Rs925 per bag of DAP and others in proportion to the nutrient basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2020.

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