Pakistan Agriculture Scientist Association and Kisan Board Pakistan has expressed concern over the federal government decision of ignoring Urea fertiliser in the Prime Minister Relief package for farmers, which is the highest intake fertiliser for crops in Pakistan.
Jamshad Iqbal Cheema, chairman Pakistan Agriculture Scientist Association, head of PTI Farmers forum told this scribe that one of the major issues in the government package is that it has ignored urea fertiliser. The intake of urea fertiliser in wheat crop is one third of total intake in Pakistan. This reflects that infact government has burdened the farmers rather subsidies them.
He said that the total intake of urea fertiliser in Pakistan is 150 million bags of 50 kg each, while Rs 200 per bag price was increased after the imposition of the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) on urea fertilisers producers. Hence, the government has put Rs 30 billion extra burden on the farmers while given Rs 20 billion packages by subsidising DAP and Nitro-Phosphorus Fertilisers, he said.
Haji Ramzan central information secretary Kisan Board Pakistan also termed the prime minister package full of flaws. In a statement, he said that the subsidy worth Rs 20 billion is only applicable to DAP and Nitro-Phosphorus Fertilisers. This subsidy however, does not cover Urea, which is injustice and biased approach by the government.
Urea in Pakistan is used three times more than that of DAP and Nitro-Phosphorus fertilisers, making it an additional burden on the farmers across the country, he said adding that factually the government is taking more money in return through increased price in Urea than they are giving in subsidy on DAP and Nitro-Phosphorus fertilisers. Prime Minister of Pakistan had promised to bring the prices of Urea back to their previous rates but so far no progress has been seen on that, he said.
In order to provide actual relief to the farmers, it is necessary that the government of Pakistan bring the rates of Urea fertilisers down to their previous level as per the announcement of the Prime Minister without any delay. Only then the farmers can improve their per acre growth thus contributing towards the progress of the country, he said.
He said that the urea fertiliser price can bring down easily if the government brings down the gas price for Fertiliser sector or revoking the GIDC imposed on the producers to reduce urea prices. As per PM package, subsidy to farmers on the purchase of DAP and Nitro Phosphorus Fertilisers has been announced with immediate effect.
The ministry of National Food Security and Research announced the decision of providing the subsidy, which will be paid in the form of a one-time subsidy of Rs 500 per a fifty kilogram bag of DAP. While the subsidy on a bag of Nitro-Phosphorus Fertilisers will be Rs 218 per bag.
The government has allocated Rs 20 billion total amount for the subsidy on the fertilisers.
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