Wheat cultivation: Urea prices shoot to Rs1,200 per bag

Growers need urea now otherwise their fields might be ruined.

SUKKUR: Fertiliser dealers of Kashmore district have started selling urea bags in the black market, pushing up the prices to Rs1,200. A bag of urea is being sold for around Rs1,180 to Rs1,200 instead of at the new government rate of Rs1,020.

Even fertiliser companies have raised the price of urea by Rs190 per bag, thus raising its price from Rs830 per bag, which was the rate determined by the government till a couple of days ago, to Rs1,020.

In Kashmore, wheat sowing starts in the last week of November and continues till the first week of December. After a tough month of plowing, the crop requires water and then urea. As the watering of the crop has already started, fertiliser dealers decided to chalk up their prices just before the growers need to buy urea.

Over 64,000 acres of land in the district has been sown with wheat, said the Sindh Abadgar Board General Secretary, Kashmore, G M Khoso. He told The Express Tribune that once Guddu Barrage maintenance is completed and it is opened, there will be enough water for the crop.

However, the farmers’ good luck stops right here. Dealers are not keeping urea stock in their godowns and are allegedly hiding it elsewhere, Khoso said. When growers visit the storage houses, the dealers tell them they are out of stock but can arrange for fertiliser for them from someone else. For this “extra effort” they charge exorbitant prices, the general secretary said.

He also blamed the district administration for watching everything silently and not taking any steps to help the growers. “The profiteers and hoarders are just let loose,” complained Khoso.

When contacted, Kashmore DCO Mohammad Saleh Jumani said he did not know about this problem. He told The Express Tribune that if this is happening, then the growers or his subordinates should inform him. “I will definitely take action against the urea dealers involved in the black market,” he said. He also added that next week, the district administration will distribute urea free of cost among the flood-affected growers of the district. He said that the growers would be given one bag per acre for Rabbi crops.

Khoso maintains, however, that this kind act of the government might not be of much use since the growers need urea immediately. If they do not add urea to their crops within two days, their month’s efforts might be totally wasted.

He criticised the government for its well-meaning but badly thought-out plans. Even the seed they distributed to the flood survivors came too late since they had already sown the crops. “The sowing season does wait for anybody,” Khoso added.

Sindh Abadgar condemns fertiliser price increase

The Sindh Abadgar board held a press conference in Hyderabad on Sunday.

President of the board, Abdul Majeed Nizami, warned that if the government does not cancel the increase in prices of fertiliser, they will turn towards the Sindh High Court for help. The federal government has raised the prices of fertilisers by 30 per cent on the directives of the IMF.

“This is like a punishment for abadgars,” he said, adding that it would destroy the country’s agriculture. Sindh agriculture department secretary Muhammad Anwar Bachani and Syed Nadeem Shah also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2011.