Bangladesh can become self-sufficient in urea fertiliser and reduce the production cost of rice drastically by using urea deep placement (UDP) technology, agriculturists said.
The UDP technology requires around 50 percent less urea but it can increase the yield by 25 percent more, they noted.
The annual demand for urea is now around 28 lakh metric tons while its annual domestic production is about 18 lakh metric tons. The current annual production of fertiliser would be enough for the country if UDP technology can be widely used, they said.
As a result, there would be no need to import fertiliser and Bangladesh also could produce 8 to 10 lakh metric tons less urea to save natural gas.
Expansion of such a technology is crucial for the country, especially at a time when farmers suffer loss due to high production cost of crops and the country goes through a gas crisis for producing power from the natural gas, they said.
“If UDP technology can be used for 80 percent rice cultivation which is very much possible, then we can save eight to 10 lakh metric tons urea,” said Dr AKM Farhad, director of a government-funded programme–Guti Urea Technology Expansion Technology to Save Urea.
Urea briquette, popularly known as ‘guti urea’, is produced from traditional urea fertiliser using locally made machines. While traditional urea fertiliser is used thrice for a crop, Guti urea is used only once.
On an average, farmers use 300 kgs urea for paddy cultivation per hectare while only 160 to 170 kgs ‘guti urea’ is sufficient for the UDP, said Mofizul Islam, senior agriculturist of International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) in Dhaka.
But one to 1.5 tonnes more rice can be produced using guti urea. If generally 4 tonnes rice is produced in a hectare, then its production will be 5 to 5.5 tonnes with UDP, he said.
“When guti urea is used, paddy plants do not suffer from hidden hunger, meaning that the plants take protein when necessary. But in case of broadcast urea, its amount may be less or more,” Mofizul Islam told The Daily Star.
Besides, a lot of nitrogen goes in the air during the use of broadcast urea, affecting the environment. More weeds grow in the paddy field because of using traditional urea.
Guti urea supplies balanced food to the plants. Farmers can also save their time, as the number of weeds is low because of using the UDP technology.
Barik Master, a farmer of Tangail, said he used only 500 to 600 grams guti urea per decimal during the last Boro season while he used 1 kg to 1.25 kg traditional urea for the same land.
“Surprisingly, the yield was over 27 kgs per decimal last time while it was around 20 kg in the past years,” he said.
Barik said his total cost was Tk 3,000 for 15-decimal land while the yield was over 10 maunds.
Farmers suffer loss or can make a very marginal profit by selling paddy at Tk 480 to Tk 500, Barik said, adding that he could make a good profit if the production cost is reduced.
With the assistance of IFDC and Department of Agriculture Extension, 6.5 hectares of land in 310 upazilas across the country were brought under UDP technology last Boro season. IFDC introduced the technology in the ’90s.
Only in last Boro season, the technology saved around 84,500 metric tons of urea fertiliser, says a calculation.
Dr AKM Farhad said 80 percent land used for rice cultivation could be brought under the technology. Rest 20 percent is not possible because guti urea cannot be used for high, more sandy and clay land.
“We do not need to import urea if all the factories can produce fertiliser,” he said.
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