TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 7: Farmers need at least 700,000 more urea fertiliser bags for their wheat crop otherwise there will be a drastic decline in per-acre yield, many growers said on Wednesday.

The growers claimed that wheat had been sown on 422,000 acres in the district for which cultivators need at least 844,000 urea bags, but the district administration has so far supplied 160,000 bags.

An agriculture department official claimed that three fertiliser sale depots had been set up in the district at Pul Nagra on Toba-Rajana Road, at a utility store and at the National Fertiliser Corporation stores at Gojra.

At Toba and Kamalia, five bags each are sold on government fixed prices to the farmers on producing their national identity card while at Gojra, farmers have to produce their ‘Fard Jamabandi’ and then they are sold one bag each against every acre of wheat crop, he said.

He said the agriculture department task force had so far got registered cases under Fertiliser Control Act 1973 against 21 dealers besides the collection of fine of Rs269,000 from them for black-marketeering.