Rains come as relief, but fertilizer shortage keeps on lingering

MAHENDRANAGAR, JUNE 28: Although the rainfalls these days have come as a relief to the farmers here, they are still worried over the shortage of chemical fertilizer needed for rice plantations. When there was no monsoon, the farmers faced the hassle of using boring water for irrigation.  Now there are no such hassles. but the unavailability of chemical fertilizers has hit them hard. So far, only 10 percent of arable land has been cultivated for rice plantations.

Chief of agriculture knowledge centre, Dr. Dil Bahadur Bista, said as the regular supply of fertilizers was disrupted in the country, non-standard chemical fertilizer has been imported. Sanjay Rana from Bedkot Municipality informed that they were forced to buy the chemical fertilizers at the exorbitant price of  Rs 2,500 per sack. "Many farmers are not able to transplant rice for lack of chemical fertilizer." He added that there is no huge amount of imports. The security persons at the border were allowing for only a sack of fertilizer once on a motorcycle and bicycle.

The agricultural inputs office this time provided only half a sack of fertilizer, Rana shared the plight. "Why the government was not managing chemical fertilizer as it was peak time for rice plantation," he wondered and worried. Chief of agriculture inputs company, Bal Bahadur Sah, said only 600 metric tons of DAP fertilizer arrived here for rice plantation a month back. Since then, there is no supply at all, he added.

RSS