Sindh growers ditching wheat as fertiliser crisis deepens

HYDERABAD: Sindh growers fear an artificial shortage of urea and DAP fertilisers and their black-marketing, which continues unabated, may force the country to spend $1 billion on wheat imports this year.

“We are paying huge bill of importing wheat despite the fact we have a capacity to produce more for domestic consumption as well as may export extra to earn enough income,” said Mahmood Nawaz Shah, a leading grower and senior vice president of Sindh Abadagar Board (SAB), while talking to The News.

The current year Sindh has covered approximately 2.7—2.8 million acres of land, according to Shah.

“Wheat is the largest crop in this season besides sugarcane, mustard, vegetables, and other traditional crops, which need urea for maintaining plant health and improving yield.”

Shah said fertiliser dealers had created an artificial crisis by hoarding these chemical inputs, and selling them at a very high price, adding big time to the cultivation cost.

Official price of urea bag is Rs1,750/bag, but it is available at Rs2,200—Rs2,400 in the black market, exploiting farmers. In some areas the same urea bag is being sold at Rs2,500 each. Similarly, DAP was being retailed at Rs5,000/bag last year and now it has increased to Rs8,500-9,000/ bag.

Both the fertiliser are a must for saving wheat crop and improving its productivity.

“We prefer to buy urea for all crops, but supply seems low despite high demand, creating uncertainty among farmers,” Shah said.

The growers accused fertiliser dealers of dumping the product at warehouses, depriving farmers of rates they deserved.

Despite hue and cry, Sindh government’s agriculture department continues to sleep on the job as the crisis escalates. Furthermore, in case of lower yield of major food crops, the country will have to pay a massive food import bill.

Quite recently fertiliser companies spent huge amount on advertisements, clarifying there was no shortage; however, ground realities show growers are crying to save their crops at this stage.

According to reports pouring in from different areas, sudden disappearance of fertiliser from the markets and its sale on the black market at high cost have caused uncertainty among farmers across the province.

Officials at Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC), initiated by a small growers’ body in Tando Allahyar district, said farmers were raising outcry against the fertiliser shortage in the area at the time when the crop was at its early stage.

Fida Chohan of SARC said the farmers were already facing different problems during wheat sowing, ranging from water scarcity to unavailability of certified seed now the increased fertiliser price was causing further uncertainty among farmers.

Tail-end farmers in parts of Umerkot, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Badin and Thatta districts faced problems due to sudden closure of canals at the sowing time. The canals from Kotri barrage feed a wide area but farmers could not cover their lands.

Reports show that some wheat farmers have shifted to oilseed crops like mustard because of market demand for mustard seed.

They justified that given the water shortage and high cost of fertiliser and pesticides they could not take the risk of cultivating wheat. They would prefer to cultivate mustard which required only two-three waters and did not need chemical input, the farmer said adding that they could earn more through these oilseed crops compared to wheat or sugarcane.

Farmers in Kunri, Umerkot, Naokot, Kaloi, Jhudo and other areas usually cultivate isabgol in November and December, but they too are waiting to have water streams in their watercourses to cultivate it.

This traditional crop takes 100-120 days for maturity.

Farmers in these areas get 18-20 maunds per acre of Isabgol, whose value in the market ranges from Rs8,000—12,000 per maund.

This crop also requires just two waters and earns growers more compared to other major crops.

Nawab Zubair Talpur, president Sindh Growers Alliance, quoted a federal government spokesperson as saying that the country needed 30 million urea bags every year.

This year 31 million bags (one million bags more) have been produced, aiming to avoid uncertainty and export extra to other countries, according to government officials.

Furthermore, he said the federal energy minister had already assured to supply gas to fertiliser manufacturing factories without delay despite the shortage of the gas in the country.

“Then there is no justification for the shortage of fertiliser,” Talpur said adding the dealer mafia was involved in this practice.

Talpur suggested the government to strengthen monitoring mechanisms for fertiliser movement. “Besides that, the government should also set up sale points at tehsil level for fertiliser distribution to avoid uncertainty among farmers,” the grower body leader said.