Farmers face no shortage of fertilisers this paddy plantation season

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, July 13: Lack of fertilisers during the paddy plantation season has been a recurrent problem in Nepal. Every year, the farmers face ordeals during the planation season because of a fertiliser shortage.

However, this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has claimed that there would be no shortage of chemical fertiliser during the paddy plantation season.

Dr. Hari Bahadur K.C, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, said that 77,500 tonnes of chemical fertilisers were in stock at present while the process to bring additional fertiliser had already started, which would avoid any shortage.

Out of 77,500 tonnes of stock fertilisers, around 39,400 tonnes of urea, 29,100 tonnes of DAP and 9,000 tonnes of potash are in stock at the depots of Agriculture Inputs Company Limited and Salt Trading Corporation (STC).

The AICL and STC, the two public enterprises, are importing and distributing subsidised chemical fertilisers to the farmers as per the budget allocated by the government.

K.C. said that additional 25,000 tonnes of DAP fertilisers under the G2G agreement with India are in the process of entering the country.

Similarly, additional 30,000 tonnes of urea imported by the Agricultural Inputs Company Limited (AICL) has started entering Nepal and it is expected that 30,000 tonnes of urea will start entering Nepal from August.

He said that Paddy plantation is going in full swing across the country and the farmers are using chemical fertilisers as per their needs.

 K.C. said that the paddy plantation has already completed around in 50 per cent of the total paddy cultivation land so far.

"The distribution of chemical fertilisers by AICL and the STC is going on smoothly across the country and no complaints from the farmers were received except from one or two places," he said.

Apart from the stock of chemical fertilisers at the depots of AICL and STC, there is also stock of chemical fertilisers with the farmers as well.

Due to the easy availability of chemical fertilisers in the market, farmers have already purchased fertilisers to meet their needs, especially to use in the paddy and vegetables.

"With the easy availability of chemical fertilisers, the tendency of farmers to stock more fertilisers will not happen. So, there has been no shortage of chemical fertilisers in the country from the beginning of the fiscal year," he said.

The government has already distributed 442,000 tonnes of chemical fertilisers, including that which were in stock from the last fiscal year. The AICL and STC sold 253,100 tonnes of urea, 175100 tonnes of DAP and 13,900 tonnes of potash in the current fiscal year.

He asked farmers to use fertilisers as per their needs as the government has been working seriously to import and distribute chemical fertilisers with priority.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, around 452,000 tonnes of chemical fertilisers, including 251,400 tonnes of urea, 179,300 tonnes of DAP and 21,200 tonnes of potash were imported during the current fiscal year.