RAHIM YAR KHAN: The artificial shortage of urea fertiliser in the district persists despite its excessive stocks in the warehouses across the district while the farmers see negligence on the part of the agriculture department and district administration behind the crisis.

The urea shortage in tehsils of Sadiqabad and Rahim Yar Khan is worse than Khanpur and Liaqatpur tehsils where the farmers are being forced to buy fertiliser at exorbitant rates.

The farmers fear that per acre yield of wheat will be affected due to unavailability of fertilisers in January and February.

Abdul Ghaffar, a grower from Sadiqabad, says that local fertiliser dealers have stockpiled urea at their secret warehouses and they supply it in low quantity to the shops. He alleges that these dealers are supplying fertiliser in required quantity to influential farmers at higher rates and transporting it in rickshaws and small vehicles.

Farmers fear low yield of wheat due to absence of fertiliser

“On the other hand, the small farmers get only a couple of bags from the dealers in the black market. The dealers sell a urea bag at Rs2,650 to Rs3,000 when its actual price is Rs1,770. Long queues of the farmers can be witnessed in the grain market of Sadiqabad.”

Ghaffar says that urea is also being transported to different areas of Sindh and Balochistan from two to three points of district Rahim Yar Khan and was also smuggled to Afghanistan.

Some big urea merchants from Balochistan are staying in Sadiqabad who purchase a bag at Rs2,700 to Rs3,000 to sell it at the rate of Rs4,000 to Rs4,500 in the neighbouring country, he adds.

Another farmer of Rahim Yar Khan, requesting anonymity, says the largest trailer service was at Goth Machi and the trailers overloaded with fertilisers are being dispatched to Balochistan with the alleged connivance of agriculture department and tehsil administration. The local small farmers are deprived of urea despite the fact that many fertiliser plants are functioning in the district and the neighbouring district, he bemoans.

Talking to Dawn, Sadiqabad Assistant Commissioner Kalim Yousuf says the government is active to control the shortage of urea as well as its smuggling. He says there are two check posts in tehsil Sadiqabad where agriculture assistants and food department’s representatives remain posted throughout the day to check movement of the urea out of province.

“A truckload of 800 urea bags was confiscated last week and it was sold to the farmers at the official rate. As many as 200 bags were confiscated from Daowala on Saturday and 200 bags were confiscated when they were being uploaded at two Quetta-bound buses today (Monday).”

Mr Yousuf says he issued directions for registration of an FIR against the dealer who was sending the bags to Quetta.

Rahim Yar Khan Deputy Commissioner Mehtab Wasim Azhar says that shortage of urea is natural and he met with the general managers of three fertiliser companies during the last couple of days to increase the supply. He hopes that the supply of urea will be enhanced from the actual quota of the district within a week.

“There are seven check posts in the district and two more are being established at as many M-5 interchanges to control the illegal transportation of urea fertiliser to other provinces.”

Claiming that there is a worse crisis of the urea shortage in Sindh compared to Punjab, Mr Azhar says that when he went to meet the administration of a renowned fertiliser company in district Ghotki of Sindh on Monday (yesterday), he saw more than 350 farmers holding a sit-in outside the main gate of the mill in protest against the urea shortage.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022