Farmers face fertiliser shortage in rice planting season

Kathmandu - A shortage of fertiliser is seen in the district at the time of rice planting season. The farmers here are compelled to spend the day looking for fertiliser from one place to another due to this. The farmers say that there is acute shortage of fertiliser which is essential especially at the time of rice planting.

They are compelled to buy fertiliser at exorbitant price due to the shortage. It is said the farmers are not getting fertiliser even if they are ready to buy it at higher price. Laxman BK of Tikapur municipality -3 is preparing his around four bighas land for planting rice but he has to halt the planting schedule as he could not get fertiliser. "There is no fertiliser in the market. We have to spend whole day searching for fertiliser going from one place to another.

There is shortage of urea in the market and the use of urea fertiliser is very essential in the planting season," he complained. Gauri Chaudhary, a farmer of Bhajani municipality-8, said farmers are compelled to buy fertiliser at an excessive price due to the short supply of fertiliser during the planting season. "All three levels of government have included agriculture as the high priority area in their respective policy and programmes. It is limited only in paper.

There is always shortage of fertiliser at the time of cultivation. Even if fertiliser is available, it is very expensive. The local governments have not carried out any works providing relief to the farmers," he lamented. According to him, cost of production is higher as the farmers have to pay high price for fertiliser and seeds. Scores of farmers have been thronging at cooperatives selling fertilisers on a daily basis to buy fertiliser. Most have to return empty-handed as they do not get fertiliser due to the shortage.

The Agriculture Inputs Company has been providing urea at Rs 1652 per quintal, DAP fertiliser at Rs 4552 per quintal and potash at Rs 3352 per quintal to the agriculture cooperatives. However, at present the farmers are paying between Rs 2,000 to 2,800 per quintal of urea and between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per quintal of DAP.