BADIN, July 18: Thousands of bags of fertiliser meant for free distribution among flood- and rain-hit growers that were rotting in government godowns and buildings are now being sold at market price.

But farmers are reluctant to buy it because they believe that prolonged storage may have affected efficacy of the fertiliser. The cumbersome process which involves verification of land ownership documents by revenue officials also discourages them.

A large quantity of seed and fertiliser was supplied to Badin district for free distribution among small farmers after a meeting held by President Asif Ali Zardari with a delegation of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries in September last year.

The district administration had formed a committee which formulated a policy and started the distribution process. But complaints were made soon about discrimination and favouritism in the distribution followed by a number of protests by rain-hit growers.

The protesters accused revenue officials of distributing the seed and fertiliser among favourites and influential landlords.

Mukhtiarkar of Talhar, a subdivision of Badin district, was sent to jail on charges of illegally selling the urea and farmers demanded an inquiry. But the government stopped distribution instead of conducting an inquiry, depriving a large number of small growers of the facility and adversely affecting Rabi crop.

Mukhtiar Ali, Ali Mohammad and other rain-hit growers told Dawn on Wednesday that farmers of Fazal Rahu taluka had complained of discrimination. The administration did not distribute urea among growers of the taluka but did so in other talukas.

A large number of urea bags provided to Golarchi were dumped in godwons and remained unused.

Assistant Commissioner of Fazal Rahu taluka, Allah Bachayo Bhatti, confirmed that 34,000 bags of fertiliser were still lying in Golarchi godowns.

He said he had received a letter from provincial agricultural authorities, directing him to sell the fertiliser at market price of Rs1,600 per 50kg bag after verifying land ownership record of each grower.

But Saleh Mohammad said growers would not bother to go through the cumbersome and lengthy process to buy urea bags from government when it was easily available in the market at the same price and they could get it even on credit.

He said that no one would be ready to buy urea from revenue officers even if they sold it at the cheapest rate of Rs700 because the fertiliser had lost its efficacy due to long storage.

Growers of Golarchi have demanded immediate free distribution of urea among growers of the town.