Pakistan may not achieve the production targets of major Kharif crops like cotton, sugarcane and rice as the non-availability of the urea at affordable price at the local market has made the growers use the commodity 15-20 percent less than the required quantity.
Well-placed sources told Business Recorder that the production of the cotton in 2011-12 may decrease from targeted 1.5 million bales to 1.2 million bales, which means that the country would be again importing cotton from other countries at much higher prices like that of the last fiscal year. Similarly, the sugarcane production target may go down by 4-5 million tons from its production target of 60 million tons set for the current fiscal year.
Rice can also lose its production target by almost 1 million ton that may cause the national exchequer to bear a loss of billion of rupees as the country has earned more than $2.5 billion by the export of the commodity in the last financial year.
Sources said that the first consignment of 25000 tons urea has been distributed to provinces. Punjab had received 11,000 tons of this 25,000 tons according to the provincial quota set by the government, but it has received 5500 tons urea so far that is insufficient to fulfil the very basic requirement and the commodity is being sold at Rs 1800 per 50 kg bag, a price beyond the affordability of a poor farmer.
Sources said, "In 2008-09, local production of urea was 4.921 million tons, in 2009-10 this increased to 5.15 million tons, while in 2010-11, this again decreased to 4.98 million tons that is only 3.5 percent less than the previous fiscal year". They added, the price of urea in 2009-10 was Rs 800-1000 per 50-kg bag, in the fiscal year 2011-12, the price has increased to Rs 1800 per 50-kg bag. Sources said that in June (which is the peak season for the major kharif crops' sowing) 2010, Punjab was provided 8.12 million urea bags, while this quantity has decreased by 19 percent in June 2011 being 6.56 million bags of urea. "How can the government now expect the production targets of the crops to be achieved when the use of urea, the basic component to enhance the crops' productivity, has reduced to the minimum?", sources lamented.