LAHORE, Aug 2: Farmers on Saturday requested the Punjab government to launch a drive against hoarders and stockists of urea fertiliser, who created supply and price crisis in the market.

At a meeting convened by the AgriForum Pakistan (AFP), farmers from different areas said urea fertiliser had `disappeared’ from the country at a very crucial stage of its consumption and hoarders were selling it, where available, at a price higher by 30 to 40 per cent.

The government, they said, had fixed a price of Rs625 per bag but it was being sold at Rs800 throughout the province. If the government could launch a drive against farmers to recover wheat at the time of procurement, why cannot it now go against fertiliser hoarders who could play havoc with the agriculture sector?

“The stockists will make at least Rs10 billion through hoarding and the withdrawal of the general sales tax (GST) on fertiliser,” says forum chairman Ibrahim Muhgal.

Even if they sell 40 million bags at a higher price of Rs150, they would end up making Rs6 billion on this head. The government had already withdrawn GST on fertiliser, the old stocks of these hoarders would bring them another `relief’ of Rs4 billion, he said.

The forum chairman said hoarders were making this money right under the nose of the Punjab government, which had launched a spirited drive against wheat hoarders.

“Why has it chosen to remain quiet on the fertiliser front?”

They should be taken to task, otherwise all three Kharif cops (cotton, sugarcane and rice) would suffer badly, Mr Mughal claimed.

Rao Afsar Ali Khan of Rajanpur, a cotton grower, said the crop had already suffered a host of problems at the time of sowing: water availability was at the lowest and the Mealy bug had always been a strong threat.

Fake pesticides would aggravate the situation. Precisely for these reason, the crop missed acreage target by at least 500,000 acres, Afsar said and added that now pressure on fertiliser availability and price would play havoc with the crop.

All three areas (cotton, cane and rice belts) were facing supply pressure. The government must move urgently to save these crops otherwise it would see its food import bill burgeoning from $7 billion to somewhere between $9 billion to $10 billion, he feared.

“It would not only be rising import bill that the government would have to deal with but the decreasing exports would also widen the already worsening trade deficit,” says Tariq Ali Shah from Lahore.

He said cotton and rice constituted almost 70 per cent of exports.

“If these crops do not meet the target, one can imagine what will happen next year to the already widening import and export gap,” Shah said.