Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque on Tuesday said that there is no shortage of fertilizer as the country has sufficient stock of the agri-input against the demand.
"There is no shortage of fertilizer until December this year, rather there is enough stock in warehouses," he told journalists after a meeting with Vietnam Ambassador Pham Viet Chien at his ministry office in the Secretariat.
Agriculture Secretary Md Sayedul Islam was present on the occasion.
Though the allocation of fertilizer has been given more this year than last year, the minister said, a shortage of fertilizer has been noticed somewhere, which is unexpected.
Razzaque said 383 mobile courts have been conducted this month when 383 dealers and retail fertilizer traders were fined Tk57.68 lakh to tackle the artificial shortage.
Along with financial penalty, licenses of the dealers involved in fertilizer manipulation will be revoked, he said.
"The license is given by the industries ministry. Therefore, the process of sending a list of their names to the industries ministry for cancelling licenses is underway," he added.
Apart from dealers and retail traders, the minister said if the field administration or field level officials are found guilty of negligence, stern actions will also be taken against them.
Speaking about MOP fertilizer, the minister said: "A total of 1,80,000 tons of MOP fertilizer was imported by the government and private management till Tuesday in this month (August), while more than 1,16,000 tons of MPO fertilizer will arrive in the country in the next month (September)."
There is a demand for 51,000 tons in September and 70,000 tons of MOP fertilizer in October, which proved that the stock is more than the demand, he added.
Earlier, in the meeting, Razzaque and Chien discussed the increasing cooperation in the two countries' agriculture sectors.
Chien proposed striking a tripartite agreement among Bangladesh, Vietnam and the Netherlands for boosting agricultural assistance.
