Kissan Board Pakistan (KBP) has announced that farmers would hold protest rallies throughout the country today (Monday) against the government's agriculture policies and black-marketing of urea fertiliser.
Central Secretary General Kissan Board Malik Ramzan said here on Sunday that farmers will take out rallies in Lahore, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Gojra, Jhang, Faisalabad, Khanewal, Mian Channu, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Sargodha, Bakkar, Khoshaab, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Taunsa in Punjab province.
He said in NWFP the farmers would hold rallies outside the Peshawar Press Club and in Charsadda, Mardan and Swabi districts on Monday.
He said in Balochistan, protest rallies will be held in Quetta, Nasirabad, Jafferabad, Panjgoor, Turbat, Kharan and Chaghi districts for protection of the poor farmers' interests.
He said that government failed to check black marketing, of the urea fertiliser. Though the government has fixed urea price at Rs 660 per 50-kg bag, yet the farmers had to pay Rs 250 to 300 more to get the 50-kg urea bag from the hoarders.
Talking to Business Recorder a prominent agronomist Farooque Bajwa who has been regularly attending meetings of the Punjab Fertilizer Committee accused the federal ministries of industries and agriculture of involvement in corruption and black marketing of urea in the country.
He said the federal government should have anticipated the fertiliser requirements for the two main Kharif and Rabbi crops and built up buffer stocks so that urea was not imported under any pressure at higher prices.
He also accused some government functionaries of getting kickbacks in awarding contracts for import of urea at much higher rates (between $425 and $236 per ton on different tenders) than the prevailing international prices at the cost of the poor farmers/growers.
He said though the Ministry of Industries had directed all manufacturers to surrender half of their urea stocks to the government to end the ongoing artificial shortages of the fertiliser by selling it through the outlets of the utility Stores Corporation yet it was simply an eyewash as the farmers were forced to buy the fertiliser from the black market.
Bajwa argued that the government has spent more than $500 million on the import of urea which could have been saved through better sale/distribution and anti-smuggling measures of the locally produced urea Agriculture experts say that the distributors across the country have illegally been selling a bag of urea as high as Rs 950, which is an increase of around 50 per cent.
According to them there is a shortage of 600,000 tons of urea in the country. Pakistan manufactures 4.8 million tons locally, while the total domestic need was 5.4 million tons. Twenty percent deficit in the domestic production and consumption was being met through imports.
They say urea is used for sprouting wheat saplings at the sowing time as well as for its robust growth. About 70 percent of total urea is consumed in Punjab, the granary of wheat.