SWABI: Traders have expressed concern over the ban on fertiliser sales, saying the restriction has severely affected their businesses.

Talking to reporters here, dealers said that the agriculture department officials visited their shops and warned them against selling even ‘a single bag of fertiliser’.

A dealer said the agriculture department officials visited his outlet, counted the bags of fertiliser, and ordered him not to sell a single bag, saying they would revisit and count them again. “If I sell it to someone, I am warned I will be booked and put behind bars,” he said.

Another trader said: “Keeping fertiliser in a shop for a long time causes it to absorb moisture, clump into hard blocks and lose its chemical strength.”

However, there were also reports that the traders sold fertilisers to growers in the black market. The price of a urea bag before the ban was Rs4,400, but now it sells in the black market at Rs6,000.

When contacted, an official at the local agriculture office told Dawn on condition of anonymity that they had orders from their high-ups to strictly enforce the ban.

The official said fertilisers were used by terrorists in making bombs. Swabi deputy commissioner Dr Tariqullah did not respond to calls for his version on the matter.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2026