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Furious farmers fret at shortage of fertiliser
SARLAHI, JUL 10 -
The number of farmers queing up in front of the Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC) with hopes of receiving subsidised fertiliser is growing by the day. However, farmers in the district are yet to plant paddy due to lack of rainfall.
Farmers are annoyed at lack of adequate fertiliser, while they also fear that the shortage might worsen.
“We are more worried about the fertiliser as we can manage irrigation from any other source than rainfall,” Ram Ekbal Sah, a farmer of Motipur
VDC-3, told the Post. Sah had been to the District Administration Office to lodge his complaints.
According to him, some areas have irrigation facilities and those that dont have them are irrigating their land through different other water sources. He said the farmers’ prime concern was fertiliser as they fear that if not used while planting paddy,
the yield may fall significantly. “We are totally dependant on agriculture while our hopes are being shattered with the shortage of fertiliser in the AIC, the only fertiliser distribution centre,” he said.
Sarlahi district, which is also popular for sugarcane production, needs a large chunk of chemical fertilisers every year. Nagendra Yadav, another farmer, said farmers are buying fertilisers from border areas. However, with the Indian government getting more rigid now, farmers are unable to smuggle fertiliser as they had been doing in the past.
Fertilisers smuggled from India were relatively cheap and getting them was easy. As such, AIC had no pressure to provide fertilisers in the past.
“Now, if farmers bring in a sack of fertiliser from India in their bicycles, they are beaten up or penalised by the border police,” Sah said, adding that the problem started this year only.
Purna Ghimire, chief of the AIC, Sarlahi, said
the demand of Urea and DAP is 1,000 tonnes. However, the office has only 200 tonnes of Urea and DAP to distribute.
Posted on: 2010-07-11 09:24
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