A disparity in urea fertiliser pricing between the mill gates and buffer godowns has annoyed the dealers in a sign of possible distribution disruption during the peak Aman season beginning from July.
Bangladesh Fertiliser Association (BFA), which comprises over 5,000 dealers, has long been demanding to fix a similar price at both the outlets for the vital agriculture input that is being used by nearly 87% farmers of the country.
“The disparity caused losses to dealers who collected urea from the buffer godowns at a higher price,” BFA Chairman Kamrul Ashraf Khan told the Dhaka Tribune Wednesday over phone.
At the factory gates, price of urea is Tk700 per 50 kg bag, which is Tk735 at buffer godowns, according to Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), the state-run body that operates six urea factories in the country.
“Users of the fertiliser are mostly concentrated in the northern part of the country having no factory in the region, forcing dealers to purchase urea from buffer spots paying additional price,” said the BFA chairman.
He claimed the government is distributing fertilisers among seed dealers through BADC (Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation), which is contradictory to the law. “Only authorised dealers are allowed to distribute fertiliser as per law.”
The BFA plans to take tougher programmes, including indefinite strikes, unless the government fixes same price of urea at the factory gates and buffer godwons, They are scheduled to announce the agitation programme from a press conference on Saturday next.
Analysts fear the farmers might have to suffer ultimately if the issue goes unheeded.
Urea is a key agricultural input that farmers apply on rice cultivation both in the rainy-season (Aman) and dry season (Boro) when the peak demand for urea rises to 565,000 tonnes.
The country’s six urea factories remain inoperative for around half of a year due to the low gas pressure, leading the government to meet the annual domestic demand by importing around 1.7m tonnes against the total demand of 2.4m tonnes.
Government provides Tk60bn to Tk90bn worth of subsidies for urea each year as the country turns heavily dependent on the import of the chemical fertiliser.
Fertiliser distribution in Bangladesh has been completely privatised since 1989-90. When the private sector has been allowed to import fertilisers in 1992, subsidies were eliminated.
Since 1995, the government is distributing fertiliser among the farmers through dealers across the country.
