No fertiliser shortage in country: Razzaque

Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque on Tuesday said that there is no shortage of fertiliser as the country has sufficient stock of the agri-input against the demand.

"There is no shortage of fertiliser until December this year rather has enough stock in warehouses," he told journalists after coming out of a meeting with Vietnam Ambassador Pham Viet Chien at his ministry office.

Agriculture Secretary Md Sayedul Islam was present on the occasion.

Though the allocation of fertiliser has been given more this year than last year, the minister said, shortage of fertiliser has been noticed somewhere, which is unexpected.

Razzaque said 383 mobile courts have been conducted this month when 383 dealers and retail fertiliser traders were fined Tk 57.68 lakh to tackle the artificial shortage.

Along with financial penalty, licenses of the dealers involved in fertiliser manipulation will be revoked, he said, adding, "The license is given by the Industries Ministry. Therefore, the process of sending list of their names to the Industries Ministry for cancelling license is underway".

Apart from dealers and retail traders, the minister said if the field administration or field level officials are found guilty of negligence, stern actions also will be taken against them.

Speaking about MOP fertiliser, the minister said, "A total of 1.80 lakh tonnes of MOP fertiliser was imported by the government and private management till today in this month (August) while more 1.16 lakh tonnes of MOP fertiliser will arrive in the country in the next month (September)".

There is a demand of 51,000 tonnes in September and 70,000 tonnes of MOP fertiliser in October, which proved that the stock is more than the demand, he added.

Earlier, in the meeting, Razzaque and Chien discussed about increasing cooperation in the two countries' agriculture sector.

Chien proposed for striking a tripartite agreement among Bangladesh, Vietnam and Netherlands for boosting agricultural assistance.