MULTAN, Sept 1: Stake-holders of rural economy have urged the government to import fertiliser on an emergency basis owing to its shortage to avoid agricultural commodities shortfall in the country.

Talking to Dawn, Pak-Arab Fertilisers GM Marketing Nadeem Tariq said that the government should have imported 300,000 tons of urea in May in view of its requirement. However, only 50,000 tons could be imported to-date though the government had announced to import 2.5 million tons.

He said that the country’s total annual production was about 4.8 billion tons while the country requires 5.2 billion tons for 2008.

He said the required quantity in August was 650,000 tons, so there is a need to import 400,000 tons in September and the estimated required quantity for December is about 800,000 tons while the country’s monthly production of urea is about 4.25 million tons.

He said when it was clear that the quantity of local production was not enough to match the requirement, the government should have imported the commodity earlier to ensure its timely supply.

Executive District Officer Agriculture (Extension) Multan Zaffar Yab Haidar said that the cultivated area of cotton in district is 450,000 acres, rice 46,000 acres and fodder 32,000 acres.

He said that only 27,000 bags of urea were available in August against its required quantity of at least 200,000 bags. The balance quantity of fertiliser in July was only 600 tons against last year’s 2,600 tons, he said.

He said that use of urea increased due to high prices of phosphatic fertilisers, cultivation of BT cotton varieties and attack of cotton leaf curl virus. BT Cotton was cultivated on about 40 to 50 per cent area of district.

A fertiliser dealer from Rahim Yar Khan said that the booking rate in July was Rs605 per bag, but fertiliser was available in the market at Rs615 and Rs620, and then the government revised the price.

He said that the government fixed the price at Rs950. Many dealers, however, booked their stocks at Rs605 per bag, and it created a difficult situation for them.

He said as dealers stopped selling at the rate fixed, manufacturers increased supply period from two to three months while earlier the supply period was 14 days.

He said that smuggling was the major factor behind acute shortage, because the price of one ton of urea in the international market is $850 against about $200 in Pakistan.

He admitted that the situation has improved as the government has taken measures to ease shortage by monitoring the process of supply from manufacturing units to dealers and its sale to farmers.

He suggested that the government should check quota of dealers because a large number of dealers in NWFP and Balochistan were getting quotas more than demand in their areas.