The government has estimated a demand of 5.03 million tonnes of chemical fertiliser for cultivation purpose in the current fiscal year (2014-15) against the current reserve of 1.33 million tonnes, officials said.
The current fiscal's reserve of urea is 0.897 million tonnes while that of non-urea fertiliser is 0.433 million tonnes, a senior official at the ministry of agriculture (MoA) told the FE.
He said that at the beginning of the last financial year, the country had a storage of only 0.64 million tonnes of urea.
"In the last fiscal, nearly 1.753 million tonnes of urea were imported and our local production by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC)-run factories was 0.810 million tonnes," he said.
The local production increased by 0.16 million tonnes in FY'14, he said, calling it a good sign for the country's agrarian economy.
He said "The committee responsible for estimating demand procurement of fertiliser under the agriculture ministry set the target of 5.03 million tonnes of fertiliser in a recent meeting for FY'15."
The committee has proposed the demand of 2.7 million tonnes of urea, 0.725 million tonnes of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP), 0.675 million tonnes of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 0.7 million tonnes of Muriate of Potash (MoP), and Gypsum 0.135 million tonnes for farming.
In the last fiscal, demand for urea was estimated at 2.65 million tonnes, he said.
The official said urea consumption was 2.33 million tonnes in FY'14 against the availability of 3.236 million tonnes.
"The urea import target was set at 1.7 million tonnes primarily for FY'15. The ministry is considering curtailing urea import by 0.1 million tonnes in FY'15 compared with that of FY'14, which could help the country save nearly Tk 2.3 billion," he said.
The official said the total cost of subsidy for agriculture stood at Tk 90 billion in FY'14, of which 73.60 per cent (Tk 61.16 billion) was disbursed for fertiliser subsidy purposes alone.
Farm economist ASM Golam Hafiz Kennedy said that urea is most sensitive and strategic product after seed.
He said: "The disproportionate use of urea fertiliser is causing harm to both plant and soil."
He said the state-run DAE should take action plans to increase use of non-urea fertiliser both of chemical and of bio instead of urea.
Mr Kennedy said the 'leaf colour chart' (LCC) method should be implemented, which can reduce the use of urea by 20-25 per cent annually at every farm.
Demand for fertiliser set at 5.03m tonnes in FY\\\'15
Yasir Wardad | Published: August 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Share if you like