Pakistan has sufficient stocks of DAP and is likely to amass more by December. Besides, there will be no shortage of agriculture inputs, informed sources told Business Recorder on Friday. "Currently, we have stocks between 0.6 million and 0.7 million tonnes of DAP. We expect that more than 0.3 million tones of the DAP will be available by December," the sources revealed.
According to these sources, the government has provided a subsidy of Rs 27 billion on DAP, while a subsidy of seven billion rupees on urea has been provided. They said that last year, the price of urea in the international market was around 200 dollars per tonne, while this year, the prices increased to 800 dollars per tonnes due to a global shortage.
Though the district co-ordination officers (DCOs) had been empowered to monitor the hoarding of urea, it was still being sold at much inflated prices over and above the rates fixed by the government, sources confided to this scribe. According to the sources, the government has already directed the DCOs across the country to monitor the urea availability and its fair distribution to the growers by dealers.
"We have directed the DCOs to prepare the weekly list of sale and purchase of urea and send it to the Food Ministry. This would enable the Minfal to ascertain the stocks available with the dealers", well-placed sources said. The sources further said a shortage of urea in the domestic market had forced growers to reduce its use per acre and high prices of DAP had made many a farmer reluctant to use it.
"In the last fiscal year, around 20 million bags of DAP were used, but this year, the usage dropped to 15 million bags. The country produced around one-thirds of the fertiliser while the rest is imported", sources said. "The growers are not making use of DAP, while harvesting cotton and sugarcane. Last year, the high price of DAP led the farmers to reduce the use of fertiliser per acre, which led to poor production", said the sources.
Owing to higher prices of DAP in 2007-08, its usage decreased at least 25 percent and negatively impacted on crop production mainly of wheat. They added that the price of DAP was still Rs 3,100-3,200 per 50-kilogram bag in the local market that was not affordable to the poor growers. And they have stopped using the fertiliser, which could, second year in a row, lead to poor yield of crops.
The government had fixed the retail price of urea in the local market at Rs 630 per 50-kilogram bag, but it is being sold at Rs 850 per 50-kilogram bag. A senior official of the Food Ministry told this scribe that if the government would find any dealer involved in black-marketing and hoarding, his dealership would be cancelled.
"We have directed the fertiliser manufacturing companies to ensure the availability of 30 percent urea on their outlets, while the remaining 70 percent should be available to the dealers. If the dealers failed to en sure availability at acceptable rate the government would cancel the dealership," said the official.
A telephonic survey, conducted by this scribe, showed that most of the DCOs were involved in black-marketing with hoarders. The official told this scribe that the government was ready to pay subsidy on DAP. "This subsidy may be in the range of Rs 2000-2200 per 50-kilogram bag and would be imposed in October", he added.
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