CHAKWAL/TAXILA: Farmers across the Potohar region are facing a shortage of fertilisers and quality wheat seeds at a time when the sowing season is in full swing across the province.

Ghulam Qasim, 72, owns a small piece of land in Karhan village of Chakwal. Mr Qasim intended to cultivate wheat on 15 acres but could not get quality seed. “The recommended seed is not available in the market while fertilisers are overpriced,” he told Dawn.

For this year the recommended seed varieties by the Agriculture Department for Potohar Region include ‘Urooj 22’, ‘Nishan 21’, ‘MA 21’, ‘Markaz 19’, ‘Barani 17’, ‘Fatehjang 16’, and ‘Pakistan 13’.

“We have run short of recommended seed and fertilisers. The seed is not available in Potohar as due to rain in October, the wheat sowing has been delayed. Earlier, sowing in our area was done 15-20 days before the rest of the province, but this year the sowing started simultaneously across Punjab,” said Rizwan Akbar, a seed and fertiliser dealer in Chakwal.

The Punjab Seed Corporation office in Potohar is located in Fatehjang. This office has only provided 70,000 bags for all four districts (Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum) where wheat is cultivated at an area of 1.6 million acres annually. The amount provided by the department, however, only catered to 70,000 acres.

Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and urea have disappeared from the market at a time when the cultivation season is in full swing.

“The shortage of DAP and urea will have a very negative impact on the yield,” said an official of the Punjab Agriculture Department. Most fertiliser dealers do not have the stock of DAP and urea in Chakwal while those few who have these fertilisers are making the most of the crisis by overcharging the consumers.

In order to control the prices, Chakwal Agriculture Department Deputy Director Mohammad Arif Malik fixed the prices of different fertilisers on October 20.

According to the notification, the price of DAP of different companies was fixed between Rs12,300 to Rs12,534 while the price of urea of different companies was set between Rs3,210 to Rs 4,725. Similarly, the price of nitrophos fertiliser and sulphate of potash were fixed at Rs7,992 and Rs12,000, respectively.

However, the situation on the ground is quite different. Most fertiliser dealers in Chakwal do not have the stocks of DAP and urea while those few who have the stocks of DAP are selling it at Rs14,000.

“I went to every shop to get DAP but in vain. The next day I managed to get five bags from a dealer who charged Rs70,000 for five bags,” said Qaisar Abbas, a farmer who wanted to buy 10 bags of DAP but could not buy them due to overcharging. “I will get some bags of nitrophos now,” he said.

Raja Nirwan, another farmer who wanted to buy 20 bags of DAP, bought only eight bags due to high prices.

On the other hand, fertiliser dealers are of the view that importers could not import DAP timely due to the shortage of dollars in the country.

“There is only one plant of DAP in the country and that is of Fauji Fertilisers Company while other companies import it. This year DAP could not be imported due to dollar crisis,” maintained Rizwan Akbar.

Iftikhar Ahmed, another fertiliser dealer who was selling DAP at Rs14,000 while keeping the shutter of his shop half shut last week, told Dawn that due to the shortage, he could not sell it at the rate fixed by the district administration.

When contacted, Deputy Director Agriculture Mohammad Arif Malik said that fertiliser companies did not have the desired stock which caused the shortage in the country.

“I would look into the issue of overcharging,” he said.

‘Hoarders making hay’

The farming community in various parts of Attock especially Hassanabdal and Jand area are reportedly paying high prices for fertilisers in the district due to alleged black-marketing and hoarding.

Farmers added that the official rate of DAP was Rs7,800 per bag but it was being sold at Rs14,000 to Rs16,000. They added that the official price ‘Sona Urea’ was Rs 3,210 per bag but it was being sold at Rs5,000 per bag.

The official rate of ‘Sona DAP’ is Rs12,815 per bag but it is being sold at Rs14,000 to Rs16,000. Engro urea’s official rate is Rs3,411 per bag but it was being sold between Rs5,000 and Rs6,000. The Engro DAP’s official rate was Rs12,723 per bag but it was being sold between Rs15,000 and Rs16,000.

The farmers warned, “This [shortage] will lead to a decline in the production of key Rabi crops i.e. wheat and potatoes.”

According to farmers, the administration forcibly takes wheat from their houses at its official rate, but farmers hardly manage to procure anything at official rates. They sought a task force to monitor the supply and marketing of fertilisers and a regional diversion plan to fill the gap between demand and supply.

Nadeem Ahmed, a wheat grower in Hassanabdal, claimed that the local administration’s crackdown on urea hoarding and smuggling was useless. He said the DAP price was at Rs7,800 per bag, which has now increased to Rs14,500.

Malik Ghulam Sarwar, a farmer in Jand, said he was unable to find a single bag of fertiliser in the open market. Malik Faizan, another farmer, complained about the black marketing of fertiliser in Jand.

Deputy Director Agriculture Extension Shakeel Ahmed claimed the Punjab government implemented a ‘Fertiliser Information Management System’ in which the movement, stocks, sales, and inward and outward flows of fertilisers will be closely monitored by various authorities.

Jand Assistant Commissioner Arif Qureshi said the agriculture department teams were making surprise visits to markets to keep a check on the prices and availability of these products.

Hassanabdal Assistant Commissioner Dr Sana Ramchand has said the local administration has taken steps to implement the provincial government’s directives to ensure availability of fertilisers.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2023