By Laxman Kafle
Kathmandu, Oct. 4: It will take at least one more month for the urea borrowed from Bangladesh to arrive in Nepal, which means the farmers will get the fertilser meant for paddy plants only after harvesting the crop.
This case shows the inefficiency of the government to address the farmers’ problem. Every year farmers face shortage of fertilisers during the plantation season but the government, even the communist government that commands two-thirds majority, has done little to solve the recurring problem.
A month ago, the government of Nepal had started a process to bring 50,000 tonnes of urea borrowed from the government of Bangladesh after the two Nepali contractors -- Shailung Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. and Honiko Multiple Pvt. Ltd., failed to import chemical fertiliser in time as per the agreement.
“We have just selected Gentrade FZE, UAE, a service provider company, to transport the 50,000 tonnes of urea which Bangladesh is providing to Nepal on a refundable basis. The process to sign an agreement with the selected contractor has begun,” said Netra Bahadur Bhandari, managing director, Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL).
According to him, the AICL has written a letter to the selected transporter on Friday asking them to come in contact to sign the agreement within a week for the proposed services (bagging, clearing, forwarding and transporting) to bring the fertiliser from Bangladesh.
“I think that the first lot of urea will arrive in Nepal from Bangladesh by the end of October as the supplier should transport all 50,000 toones of urea from Bangladesh within 70 days after opening the Letter of Credit (LC),” he told The Rising Nepal.
The supplier should open an LC within three days after signing the contract to deliver the fertiliser based on the agreement and bidding documents.
The supplier can transport fartiliser using any means of transportation facilities such as road, railways and ships but it should deliver the fertiliser at the warehouses of the AICL located at Birjung, Bhairahawa and Biratnagar within the timeframe.
The AICL has selected Gantrade FZE, UAE out of five bidders as it bid the lowest transportation amount of US$ 82.24 per tonne. The highest transportation amount quoted was US$ 105 per tonne.
Around US$ 4,112,000 will be spent to bring 50,000 tonnes of urea from Bangladesh.
After the request of the government of Nepal to supply the urea to address its shortage during the paddy plantation season, the government of Bangladesh had assured to provide 50,000 tonnes of urea to Nepal on a refundable basis during a telephone conversation between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his Bangladeshi counterpart Seikh Hasina Wazed on September 1.
Over a month has passed to complete the process to bring the fertiliser even though the government had set a target to bring the fertiliser as soon as possible to address the crisis faced by the farmers.
The authorised body has taken the move when the paddy is almost ready for harvest. The farmers were unable to get the fertiliser when they needed it the most.
Bhandari said that the new lot of urea would be used for wheat farming as around 60,000 tonnes of urea and 70,000 DAP is required for wheat cultivation across the country.

AICL and BCIC to ink accord on modality of giving/taking within a week
“Based on the government’s decision, we are preparing documents to sign an agreement between the AICL and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) to bring the fertiliser on a refundable basis and return it to Bangladesh,” he said.
Bhandari expressed his hope that the signing of the agreement between the government undertaking of both countries—AICL and BCIC - would complete within a week.
He said that Nepal would return the same amount of fertiliser to the government of Bangladesh within eight months from the date of agreement inked between the AICL and BCIC.
At least eight months will take to import fertiliser through a new tender process, so the government has decided to borrow fertiliser to meet the immediate demand and return the same amount of fertiliser by issuing the tender notice.
“AICL will issue a tender notice to deliver 50,000 tonnes of urea to Bangladesh. The awarded contractors should deliver fertiliser to Bangladesh,” he said.