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Download PDF Potato farmers at sadar upazila in Manikganj’s Ghior upazila fear they may make a loss of an estimated Tk 20 crore this year because of fertiliser crisis in the planting season.
This correspondent talked to some farmers of the union on Saturday who complained that though the potato-planting season is nearing an end, they have not been able to start the planting for fertiliser shortage.
They said potato is the cash cow for them as the vegetable earns them around Tk 70,000 in profit per bigha, adding that they sold just about 2.5 lakh maund of tuber for Tk 20 crore last year, the amount they risk losing this year.
Farmers at Mailagi village told this correspondent that sub-assistant officer at Agriculture Extension Department, Rokeya Begum, along with fertiliser dealers and acting union parishad chairman, came to the village on Wednesday to hand out fertiliser, only to go back for lack of sufficient stock with them.
The farmers alleged that the authorities carted in only 200 sacks of fertiliser against a demand of 600 sacks.
When contacted, Rokeya said she was allocated 500 sacks of urea and was handing in slips to the farmers to receive it on November 10.
One farmer said he planned to crop potato on 30 bighas of land this year, encouraged by last year’s Tk 10 lakh profit from 22 bighas.
He said his expansion plan is now in uncertainty as he has got only 13 sacks of urea whereas some 80 sacks of urea, 80 sacks of TSP, 40 sacks of potash, 1000 kgs of gypsum, 50 kgs of zinc and 50 kgs of Borun or 150 kgs of Sohag are needed for potato farming on 30 bighas of land.
Other farmers gave vent to the same frustration, seeking intervention of the agriculture adviser to end the crisis.
The shortage of urea is also affecting cultivation of Rabi crops in most areas of Manikganj district, farmers said.
In many areas farmers are returning home disappointed after waiting in vain in long queues at dealer shops.
This correspondent, who visited different areas of Manikganj sadar, Ghior and Shibalaya upazilas in last couple of days, saw a long queue of farmers in front of the dealer shop at Tarail Bazar in Shibalaya upazila, where authorities have deployed police to prevent any untoward incident.
Farmers at Betila Mitorea union accused the local dealer of selling fertiliser at a price higher than that fixed by the government.
Angry farmers at Rajibpur Bazar in sadar upazila beat up a dealer and assaulted four sub-assistant officers of agricultural department on Tuesday.
Deputy director at Agriculture Extension Department, Mokbul Hossain Talukdar, blamed the farmers for the problem as he said they, fearing crisis in the coming days, tend to buy more fertiliser than what they really need.
The agriculture official said he got 2,135 tonnes of fertiliser he asked for October, adding that the authorities have also allocated the department 4000 tonnes for November.
Deputy commissioner Manikganj, Ataur Rahman, denied any fertiliser crisis in the district and claimed that management and distribution of fertiliser is good and there will be no problem.
“We will send urea to the farmers on time”, he said.
November 8th, 2007 at 7:08 am
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