Smuggling of urea threatens food security

Farmers fear commodity shortage will dent agriculture production

LAHORE:

Farmers have urged the government to take immediate action against the smuggling of urea from Pakistan to the bordering countries.

In a statement on Wednesday, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) President Khalid Khokhar highlighted that smuggling of large quantities of urea to Afghanistan and beyond would trigger shortage of fertiliser in the local market in the next few months.

He warned that Pakistan would face scarcity of the commodity throughout 2022. “Shortage will lead to increase in prices of urea, which will take the commodity beyond the reach of farmers.”

The PKI president was of the view that the scarcity of the commodity amid the global conflict would threaten the nation’s food security and dent its agricultural production.

Following fertiliser shortage from November 2021 to February 2022, the agriculture sector was on the verge of disaster due to urea smuggling, he lamented.

“Large quantities of urea are being openly smuggled to Afghanistan through the Chaman and Torkham borders,” he said. “On the other hand, Afghan brokers are purchasing truckloads of the commodity.”

He voiced fear that urea scarcity could negatively impact the production of food and other crops such as cotton, wheat, sugarcane and corn.

He pointed out that due to the failure of authorities concerned, Pakistan would be forced to import large quantities of wheat and sugar at a time of uncertainty arising from the global conflict.

The Russia-Ukraine war has sparked global shortage of the agricultural input given that both countries feature among major fertiliser producers in the world.

This has already hiked the price of urea by around $1,000 per ton in the international market.

“Imported urea costs around Rs10,000 per bag compared to Rs2,000 per bag for the locally produced urea,” he said. “It is impossible for Pakistan to import the agricultural input at such high prices.”

Given the soaring international rates, smugglers are grabbing the opportunity to illegally supply fertiliser to Afghanistan and Pakistani farmers are bearing the brunt of the illegal trade, Khokhar added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2022.

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