Govt body to review urea situation tomorrow
FE Report | Saturday, 7 March 2009
The government is mulling over streamlining the supply and distribution of fertiliser in order to prevent any scarcity of the main agricultural input during the ongoing Boro cropping season, official sources said.
A top government body is expected to sit tomorrow (Sunday) to review the overall fertiliser distribution arrangements for the current Boro cropping season.
The government has already recast the national fertiliser affairs committee making Agriculture Minster Matia Chowdhury its convener following the change of government, a senior official told the FE.
During the past caretaker government, the then adviser for industries headed the committee for overseeing the price, supply and distribution of fertilisers.
It will be the first meeting of the reconstituted committee after the Awami League-led alliance government installed in power in January last.
"The total availability of fertiliser, especially urea, both from imports and local production and the overall distribution arrangements under the official channel are expected to be high on the meeting agenda," said a senior agriculture ministry official.
Besides, the meeting is likely to discuss the issues regarding the present situation and possibility of smuggling out of urea to the neighbouring countries.
The government has initiated the current move to streamline the fertiliser distribution chain across the country with a view to ensuring smooth and supply of the key input.
"The main objective of the current official steps is to keep the fertiliser supply uninterrupted during the peak 'Boro' cultivation season for the sake of achieving a 1.8 million tonnes of rice output target," said an official.
Taking the previous experiences into account, the authorities had earlier prepared a work plan for checking any supply crisis of urea at the farmers end during the entire Boro cropping time, according to officials.
In this backdrop, preparations were taken earlier for making nearly 1.59 million tonnes of urea available during the December-March period - the peak cultivation season of Boro crop - against the projected demand of nearly 1.50 million tonnes for the period, they mentioned.
Citing official figures, they said the country's total demand for urea has been estimated at 2.85 million tonnes for the current fiscal year (FY) 2008-09.
On the other hand, 2.99 million tonnes of urea are expected to be available by the end of this fiscal, official figures showed.
Of the total, about 1.69 million tonnes of urea are expected to be produced locally while demand for the remaining 1.30 million tonnes of urea will be met through import, officials said.
According to the work plan, some 0.475 million tonnes of urea are to be imported from the Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (KAFCO) and another 0.5 million tonnes of urea will be procured from abroad.
Taking some supply scarcity of fertilisers into account, the past caretaker administration had raised the number of authorised dealers at union level to make the agricultural input easily available for Boro farmers.
A top government body is expected to sit tomorrow (Sunday) to review the overall fertiliser distribution arrangements for the current Boro cropping season.
The government has already recast the national fertiliser affairs committee making Agriculture Minster Matia Chowdhury its convener following the change of government, a senior official told the FE.
During the past caretaker government, the then adviser for industries headed the committee for overseeing the price, supply and distribution of fertilisers.
It will be the first meeting of the reconstituted committee after the Awami League-led alliance government installed in power in January last.
"The total availability of fertiliser, especially urea, both from imports and local production and the overall distribution arrangements under the official channel are expected to be high on the meeting agenda," said a senior agriculture ministry official.
Besides, the meeting is likely to discuss the issues regarding the present situation and possibility of smuggling out of urea to the neighbouring countries.
The government has initiated the current move to streamline the fertiliser distribution chain across the country with a view to ensuring smooth and supply of the key input.
"The main objective of the current official steps is to keep the fertiliser supply uninterrupted during the peak 'Boro' cultivation season for the sake of achieving a 1.8 million tonnes of rice output target," said an official.
Taking the previous experiences into account, the authorities had earlier prepared a work plan for checking any supply crisis of urea at the farmers end during the entire Boro cropping time, according to officials.
In this backdrop, preparations were taken earlier for making nearly 1.59 million tonnes of urea available during the December-March period - the peak cultivation season of Boro crop - against the projected demand of nearly 1.50 million tonnes for the period, they mentioned.
Citing official figures, they said the country's total demand for urea has been estimated at 2.85 million tonnes for the current fiscal year (FY) 2008-09.
On the other hand, 2.99 million tonnes of urea are expected to be available by the end of this fiscal, official figures showed.
Of the total, about 1.69 million tonnes of urea are expected to be produced locally while demand for the remaining 1.30 million tonnes of urea will be met through import, officials said.
According to the work plan, some 0.475 million tonnes of urea are to be imported from the Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (KAFCO) and another 0.5 million tonnes of urea will be procured from abroad.
Taking some supply scarcity of fertilisers into account, the past caretaker administration had raised the number of authorised dealers at union level to make the agricultural input easily available for Boro farmers.