Bangladesh: Fertiliser crisis worries Rajshahi farmers

Farmers blamed the syndicates of some dishonest dealers, traders, and agricultural officials and employees for the artificial crisis, leading to high prices.

According to annual reports of the Department of Agriculture Extension and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, a total of 106 lakh tonnes of potatoes were produced in Bangladesh in the past 2023-24 fiscal year, of which 79 lakh tonnes of the agricultural crop was produced in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions.

In the 2024-25 season, the agricultural officials have set a target of producing about 98.55 lakh tonnes of potatoes from 3.65 thousand hectres of land in the Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions alone.

Farmers said that about two sacks of (100 kilogrammes) muriate of potash, also known as MOP, one sack (50 kilogrammes) of diammonium phosphate, also known as DAP, and one sack of triple superphosphate, also known as TSP, are required at the beginning of the potato of cultivation per bigha of land.

According to the DAE Rajshahi divisional office, 14374 tonnes of MOP, 25,600 tonnes of DAP, and 9286 tonnes of TSP have been allocated in the Rajshahi agriculture region, comprising Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, Natore and Rajshahi districts, in the past month while about 15,897 tonnes of MOP, 31,288 tonnes of DAP, and 9,817 tonnes of TSP are to be allocated in December.

The officials said that the government-set prices of MOP, DAP, and TSP fertilisers at the farmer level were Tk 1000, 1050, and 1350 respectively.

Farmers, however, alleged that Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation dealers were charging them additional money up to Tk 450 per sack of fertiliser, owing to less allocation.

Habibur Rahman, a farmer of Tanore upazila in Rajshahi, told New Age that he needed 30 sacks of MOP, 15 sacks of DAP, and 15 sacks of TSP

fertilisers before planting potato seeds in his fifteen bighas of land.

‘After standing in a long queue for hours at a BCIC dealer shop, I could manage only a sack of MOP fertiliser at the government-set price,’ he said, adding that the same dealer was selling MOP at Tk 1200 per sack stating that he collected it from other sources.

Visiting a BCIC dealer shop in Baya Bazar under Paba upazila in Rajshahi, this correspondent found MOP, DAP, and TSP fertilisers being sold at Tk 1180, 1300, and 1700 respectively against the government-set prices of Tk 1000, 1050, and 1350.

An employee working at the shop told New Age that they had collected the fertilisers from other places as the BCIC allocation was too low against the farmers’ demand.

‘A total of 120 sacks of TSP was allocated to each of the dealers while a farmer alone needs over 200 sacks’, he added.

Contacted, Rajshahi DAE deputy director Mst Umme Salma told New Age that they were trying their best to monitor the situation so that no dealer could charge additional money from the farmers. ‘If anyone lodges any complaint with us, we will take necessary actions instantly,’ she added.