LAHORE: Farmers have demanded that the government import at least 200,000 tonnes more urea to meet the domestic requirement, which is on the rise because more and more lands are being brought under cultivation while use of the compost in cereals and cotton crops is also growing.

“The current annual urea net consumption estimate stands at 7,000,000 tonnes due to increasing agricultural lands and growing usage of the fertiliser in cereals and cotton crops. Thus, we need an additional 200,000 tonnes of urea as a buffer stock to stabilise prices and maintain positive market sentiments,” Pakistan Kissan Ittehad president Khalid Khokhar said here on Tuesday.

He said that domestic urea production in 2023 barely reached 6.4 million tonnes against an annual demand of 7 million tonnes, which shows that the country may face a shortfall of 600,000 tonnes despite imports of 210,000 tonnes of the compost in December 2023 and January 2024.

He regretted that artificial shortage of the commodity being created by the dealers is further complicating the situation.

He demanded that the government develop a long-term strategy for domestic urea availability to ensure food security and prevent recurring shortages.

Also a uniform urea price should be ensured nationwide, as historically practiced, to deter middlemen from exploiting price differentials, Mr Khokhar said.

He suggested that in case of any shortfall, a prompt decision-making mechanism needs to be developed to save farmers from exploitation.

He sought an effective mechanism to mitigate the effect of increase in prices of fertilizers instead of adapting the current inefficient token-based direct subsidy scheme, which has badly failed to benefit the farmers.

The farmers’ leader said that continuously increasing crop production cost has become a challenge for small growers, constituting around 90 percent of the farming community, to pay such a high upfront input cost to cultivate crops.

Keeping in view of the production cost viz-a-viz commodity prices, rationally urea price should not be more than Rs3000 per bag, he asserted.

He said the farming community is tirelessly working to maximize wheat production to increase per acre production target from current 34 maunds to 40 maunds but is facing hindrances in access to essential inputs like Urea, which is either scarce or unaffordable.

Calling for an urgent government intervention, he said the current situation demanded immediate action and a long-term strategy to control the present circumstances and prevent recurrence in future.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2024