LAHORE, July 3: Farmer bodies on Monday claimed that fertiliser companies had increased urea and DAP prices by Rs20 per bag, costing the agriculture sector Rs2 billion annually.

The government has set aside Rs12 billion for subsidy on fertiliser in the budget but the increase would reduce the subsidy amount to Rs10 billion. This has happened on the first day of current fiscal year. “Let the companies increase the price two more times, which cannot be ruled out under the circumstances, and the so-called subsidy would be entirely wiped off,” they feared.

"Currently, all major Kharif crops are standing in the field and require massive quantity of fertiliser," says Ibrahim Mughal of the Pakistan Agriculture Forum. Cotton has been sown on around eight million acres, sugarcane on 2.5 million acres and rice is being sown on five million acres. All these crops needed huge quantity of fertiliser.

“That is also one reason for the fertiliser companies opting for most opportune time to increase the price. They know, even if the government chose to act, it would be doing belatedly if other case like sugar was something to go by. By the time government acts, if ever it dose, the companies would make billions,” he added.

If the government chose to remain a silent spectator, they would continue minting money for the rest of their lives, he lamented. The government is still clear about its priorities as far as the agriculture sector is concerned. It had left the sector on the mercy of the profit-seeking private sector that had been given a free hand, he said.Farooq Bajwa of the Farmers Association Pakistan said the government act of keeping silent was totally unconstitutional. The constitution says that Pakistan is a welfare state and these anti-welfare steps of the government fly in the face of constitution, he claims.

The increasing cartelisation of the economy is expanding into virtually every area of the economy, he said and added: "After sugar and cement, the pattern is moving into the fertiliser sector. The government has neither done anything in other sectors, nor is ready to move on any other front. This is pathetic to say the least. Agriculture contributes immensely in the economy and such steps are squeezing it beyond life. The sector has lost its fiscal promise during the last few years, and now it has entered a stage where it could only make loss for the farmers. The farming community is sticking to land only because it has nothing else to do, otherwise farming is no more a business worth doing."

An official of the Agriculture Chamber, a farmers' wing of the ruling Muslim League, was equally critical of the increase, saying that it was tantamount to strangulating farmers and farming in the country. “Industrialists seem to be competing with each other that who makes money, and how quickly. The most tragic part in the present increase is that army is a big player in the fertiliser sector, and it was also following the course, if not leading it. The fertiliser manufacturers regularly increase prices and do so with such an impunity that perpetuates the trend, he lamented.