Pakistan will have to pay $ 800 million more on import of 1.4 million tons Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser next year as its price has gone up from $ 250 per ton to more than $ 850 per ton within a year.
Officials in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) told Business Recorder here on Sunday that Pakistan needed 2 million tons DAP fertiliser for its two seasonal--Rabi and Kharif--crops annually.
They said that that 20 percent of DAP requirement is met from local production, while about 1.4 million tons fertiliser is imported from different countries--China, USA and the Middle East.
They said the prices of DAP fertiliser have gone up because of soaring increase in the cost of energy, oil, export duty on DAP and greater international demand of the fertiliser. When the price of 50 kg bag was Rs 1100, it was sold to farmers at Rs 850, as the government gave Rs 250 subsidy.
He said that with the extraordinary increase in the prices of DAP fertiliser, which is now Rs 2800 per 50 kg bag, the farmers have cut down the use of fertiliser by 60 percent during the current Rabi crop. It may be added that one quarter of Pakistan Gross Domestic Product GDP is contributed by the agriculture sector and it employs 44 percent of the labour force. Agricultural exports directly and indirectly make up a large proportion of total exports and foreign earnings of the country, sources said.
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