Demand for fertiliser grows

Fertiliser offtake rises 63% month-on-month in Nov

KARACHI:

Agricultural activities have gained some momentum as fertiliser offtake rose by 63% month-on-month to 994,459 tons in November 2022.

“Wheat crop has reached a stage where its fertiliser needs have gone up,” Aamer Hayat Bhandara, Co-founder of Agriculture Republic, told The Express Tribune.

“Farmers have learnt a lesson from the previous year when urea not only got costlier, but also disappeared from the market. This year, they don’t want to take any risk and are procuring it at whatever cost it is available,” he said.

Potato is another crop that has a good demand for fertiliser. It is a short-duration crop spanning three to four months that requires urea in the second month of planting.

On a year-on-year basis, however, fertiliser sales went up by a meagre 2%. Among nutrients, nitrogen and phosphate offtake increased by 3.6% and 3.8% whereas potash demand decreased by 92.3%.

Sindh, which has been hit hard by this year’s floods, is yet to see its agriculture sector accelerating the recovery from losses.

“The agriculture sector has not achieved significant recovery so far. After floods, no crop has reached the stage of harvesting or given any return,” said Miran Mohammed Shah, President of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.

Rice, soybean, wheat and sugarcane crops were yet to give any “productivity return”, he said.

Contrary to that, urea prices have gone up manifold probably because farmers are at the sowing stage for many crops, especially wheat.

“Not a single government package, not even the Prime Minister’s Kissan Package, could reach farmers. Also, Sindh’s cash disbursement programme has not been implemented,” he lamented, adding that some floodwater was still standing in the fields.

Urea’s closing inventory stood at 314,000 tons in November 2022, down 30% month-on-month, while DAP inventory was estimated at 562,000 tons, up about 14%, according to a report of Taurus Securities.