Said to be sufficient, found to be not

The assertion of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation about urea sufficiency belies what the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) holds about it.

The DAE affirms that farmers are not getting fertilizer against their demand, and indicates a likely shortage of fertilizer in the field, especially in the foreseeable Robi season, if distribution problem, if any, is not fixed.

According to the DAE data, currently there is only around 64,000-tonnes urea in 23 buffer warehouses across the country.

Of them, around 16,000 tonnes are in concrete form, of which 605 tonnes are in Natore, 8,700 tonnes in three storages of Dinajpur, 700 tonnes in Rangpur, 2,600 tonnes in Mahendranagar of Lalmonirhat, 462 tonnes in Kurigram and 2,979 tonnes in two warehouses in Bogura.

In addition, 1,08,041 tonnes of urea have so far been distributed to dealers and retailers, and a total of 1,70,000 tonnes are now available for farmers to collect. The annual demand for urea is 26 lakh tonnes in the country.

At the same time in previous years, the buffer houses witnessed five times more than the current amount of fertilizer storage this fiscal – an indication that there could be a fertilizer crisis in the upcoming Robi season starting from mid-October, said an official at the DAE.

“Whatever the stock, problem arises at distribution end. The DAE is concerned, but those who are engaged in production and distribution need to be cognizant of a clear distribution system,” Director of DAE Field Service Wing AKM Monirul Alam told The Business Post.

After a field visit to Barishal and Jashore, DAE officials have found that farmers are already in serious want of fertilizer. The DAE wrote a letter to the agriculture ministry for taking appropriate steps in this regard.

Officials of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) are of the view that there will not be any crisis of fertilizer this year as import is taking place, and already fertilizer-laden ships remain anchored at the port waiting to offload the soil nutrient.

However, they admit that local production is being hampered to some extent.

“Over 6 lakh tonnes of urea are in storage while 60,000 tonnes more are waiting to be offloaded. So I think there will not any serious shortage of fertilizer,” asserted Md Amin Ul Ahsan, director (commercial) of BCIC.

“Production is being hampered due to gas crunch. Jamuna fertilizer factory is facing this problem, but this will not hit supply chain in this fiscal, particularly during Robi season,” said Mohammad Shaheen Kamal, director (production and research) of the organisation.

“Other three factories are facing a little bit of problem in production due to gas crisis.”

Import will increase in current fiscal

Of the annual total demand of 26 lakh tonnes of urea, around 10 lakh tonnes were produced in the country in four fertilizer factories in FY 2020-21 while the rest 16 lakh tonnes were imported, according to BCIC.

Officials at Jamuna fertilizer company said 3, 40,000 tonnes of urea were produced last year, but this year is exception as the factory is facing a serious low pressure of gas.

Moreover, the factory will remain closed for a month and a half due to machinery maintenance. It expects to produce 2 lakh tonnes of fertilizer this year.

On average, the price of one tonnes of imported urea is Tk 32,000. The price goes down to Tk 22,000 if produced locally.

However, the government distributes per tonnes fertilizer to the dealers at Tk 14,000. A Tk 140 crore more will be needed to meet the deficiency of Jamuna factory this year.

According to the Ministry of Power, there is a shortage of around 100-crore cubic feet of natural gas in the national grid.

Factories are outdated

Once there were six factories producing fertilizer. The first factory was constructed in Ghorashal in 1972. Now Jamuna, Ashuganj, Chattogram and Shahjalal fertilizer factory are in operation. Ghorashal and Polash were two other factories demolished and a new factory is under-construction in Ghorashal with an annual capacity of 9.14 lakh tonnes.

The lifetime of these urea-producing factories is 20 years.