January 9, 2006	Monday	Zilhaj 8, 1426

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LAHORE, Jan 8: Farmers on Sunday claimed that the recent raise in urea prices would cost them Rs1.64 billion and have a back-breaking impact on the agriculture sector. Speaking to Dawn, office-bearers of various farmer bodies claimed that the country consumed over 102 million urea bags every year. An increase of Rs16 on each bag had placed them under an additional burden of Rs1.638 billion despite the fact that they were already paying Rs30 billion extra on two fertilizers if compared with India.

A urea bag in India cost Rs330 when converted into Pakistani rupees and a DAP bag cost Rs624. Both these fertilizers (constituting 84 per cent of the total consumption) cost Rs500 and Rs1,100 in Pakistan.

Dilating upon the fertilizer market, Ibrahim Mughal of the Kissan Board Pakistan said there were 11 different fertilizers in the market. Of them, eight provided single element and three fell in the category of compound fertilizers.

The total consumption of fertilizer was 7.68 million tons (153 million bags). Out of them, urea use was 66 per cent, DAP (18 per cent), NP (4.6 per cent), SSP and NPK (two per cent each) and the rest of the seven per cent fell in miscellaneous category, he said.

About urea consumption, he said, Punjab used 67 per cent of it, Sindh (23 per cent), Balochistan (three per cent) and the NWFP used seven per cent. He deplored that the sudden increase of Rs16 on a fertilizer bag would be a hard blow to farmers. Farooq Ahmad Bajwa of the Farmer Associate Pakistan was of the view that the unilateral decision by the government had cost the farmers and the agriculture sector dearly. It regularly enhanced prices of diesel and other inputs, he said, adding that there was no justification for such an exorbitant raise.

A former official of a fertilizer company said the government itself has increased prices for reducing its subsidy bill on imported fertilizer. There were reports that fertilizer companies would not get any amount from the raise, he added.

The government had been importing around 600,000 tons of urea every year, which cost it around Rs900 per bag but it sold the same at Rs480 in the local market. The total subsidy bill ran into over Rs4 billion, he said, claiming that the current increase was meant to partially reduce the subsidy bill.