Farmers in Magura raised objections to the quality and market price of urea fertilisers which they said became “damp” and “coagulated” from years of being heaped under the open sky.
They also objected to the price of fertilisers being sold on the market, saying although the government had set the pricing structure for urea, it was not being adhered to.
According to sources at the Agriculture Extension Department (DAE), the government has planned to bring 53,219 hectares of land under Aman cultivation in the district this year, with an output target of 142,688 metric tonnes of rice.
A total of 40 dealers have been recruited to sell urea fertiliser – a soluble, soil-nutrient supplement usually rich in nitrogen – to the farmers for spreading on their land.
“Urea fertilisers that we find at the market are mostly damp and coagulated and not suitable for use. They were probably kept under the sky for years. Using them would do more harm than good,” said Selim Sheikh, a farmer of Kuchia Mora village under the Magura Sadar upazila.
He further said the dealers are “exploiting” farmers by selling low-quality fertilisers at a price higher than what was set by the government.
“The government has fixed the price of urea at Tk16 per kg, but they are selling it at Tk20-Tk22 violating the government instruction. They do it every time during Aman season,” Selim added.
Retailers, however, claim they have no option but to sell urea at higher rates because of the “existing market situation.”
A urea dealer, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We bought urea for Tk16 per kg, how can we then sell it at the same price? Add to that the cost of transportation, and also the fertilisers that we bought at Tk20 before the government reduced its cost.”
“There are other reasons too, like each bag of fertilisers that we were given contained 45-46kg of urea instead of the promised 50kg, which has naturally affected the market price.
“Moreover, farmers are not showing much interest in the fertilisers because they say those are of substandard quality, but what could we do? That’s what we were given,” he added.
Mokhlesur Rahman, a deputy director of the Magura office of DAE, denied the allegations of supply of coagulated fertilisers and said they had not received any complaint in this regard.