Rising cultivation costs hit farmers hard, says SAB chief

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has claimed that the dealers of urea are ripping off the farmers to the tune of Rs130 billion per annum as the government and the fertiliser companies which are supposed to regulate prices appear to be conniving.

Addressing a presser at Hyderabad Press Club on Tuesday, the president of the board, Mahmood Nawaz Shah, lamented that the board’s efforts for over a year to compel the authorities to gear into action to curb this blatant hoarding practice.

“Other than a few administrative steps at the local level, nothing has happened,” he said.

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According to him, both the urea and Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) are being stockpiled. Shah recalled that a bag of urea was being sold at Rs1,700 and that of the DAP at Rs4,700 in the year 2021.

Currently, the prices have skyrocketed over threefold to up to Rs5,200 and Rs14,500, respectively.

Shah said the hoarders stockpile urea far beyond their requirement before the start of the sowing season of the major crops like wheat. He added that when the farmers go to buy that fertiliser they are told about shortage and are, subsequently, charged far higher than the company fixed rates, saying that the act amounts to extortion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2023.