Growers are fearing that the target set for the Rabi season cannot be achieved if they are not provided with sufficient quantity of urea fertiliser. Talking to Business Recorder on Saturday, a delegation of the growers of district Dadu said that they always become the victim of government's apathy, profiteers and hoarders.
As against this the influential landlords receive fertilisers in a huge quantities at government-fixed rates from the concerned district officials and companies. They said that the shortage of fertiliser will directly hit the target of wheat production as a majority of growers was denied the supply. They opined that 80 percent of local growers have switched over to urea fertilisers against the DAP because of price differences and easy availability in the market, fertiliser is also being sold through blackmarket, they added.
They said "The dealers were billing up stocks of fertilisers" and added that there is no check as the district officers are involved in black-marketing. We need fertiliser urgently, but it seems there exists no agency that can provide any relief to the poor growers," they added.
The alleged DCOs (District Co-ordination Officers) are distributing fertilisers to the influential and favourite landlords, depriving small growers of their due share. Meanwhile, agriculture department officials said that the federal government has given a target of supplying one million fertiliser bags to the growers, but it distributed only 74 percent of the target.
They said the government has imported 105 thousands tonnes of DAP and 400 thousand tonnes will come from the domestic sources for the ongoing Rabi season. They said the agriculture department has time and again written to the concerned DCOs to take action against the hoarders and profiteers, but all in vain as the local administration of the district were minting money from the dealers.
According to these officials, fertiliser was sold at different rates in the province Rs 680 in Karachi, Thatta (690), Jamshoro (780), Badin (755), Tharparkar (820), Umerkot (690), Mirpurkhas (700), Tando Allahyar (765), Tando Muhammad Khan (680), Hyderabad (780), Matiari (750), Sanghar (735), Nawabshah (800), Naushehro Feroz (715), Khairpur (700), Sukkur (800), Ghotki (720), Shikarpur (710), Shikarpur (690), Jacobabad (790), Kashmore-Kandhkot (860), Qambar-Shahdadkot (815), Larkana (725) and Dadu (685).