Open up fertiliser distribution system, say economists

FE Team | Published: October 12, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
Economists said Thursday that the government would need to open up fertiliser distribution system to ensure increased supply of the input in the coming Rabi and Boro seasons to overcome the losses caused by the recent deluge.
"If adequate fertiliser is not supplied to the farmers, maximum output of the crops in coming seasons would not be possible," Mahbub Hossain, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) said.
He was briefing the press on a survey report titled "Challenges Facing Post-flood Crop Sector: Policy Perspective for Rehabilitation Programme", at the CPD office in the city.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and BRAC jointly conducted the survey in six selected districts in the northern region.
Mahbub Hossain, also a member of the survey team, said the government should open up the fertiliser distribution system. It can even raise the price of urea fertiliser by additional Tk 3.0 per kilogram (kg) from existing Tk 6.0 per kg and ensure supply at the farmers level to boost production in next Rabi and Boro seasons, he said.
"It will require imports of 0.7 million tonnes of urea at a cost of Tk 16.00 billion over the next three months for fulfilling the demand during the next Rabi and Boro seasons. Higher spending on fertiliser import will be difficult for the government; it (government) can increase the urea price at the farmers level and can open the distribution system to make the input available in the country," Hussain said adding, "almost all the farmers in survey areas are ready to buy the urea at increased rate if those are available in the market."
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Executive Director of the CPD and Uttam Deb, Senior Research Fellow of the CPD and another survey team member also shared their experience.
The survey put emphasis on providing seasonal credit to the farmers by the local NGOs instead of traditional micro-credit system to overcome the losses in the agricultural sector by the recent flood.
The joint survey also recommended increased disbursement of agricultural credit in the flood affected areas through a coordinated approach of all financial institutions.
Adequate quality hybrid seeds for rice cultivation in the next Boro season will have to be ensured to make up a possible shortfall of 0.9 million tonnes this year, the survey report added.