MUZAFFARGARH, July 29: Cotton growers in the district are finding the going hard as they claim that urea fertiliser has disappeared from the market.

Cotton crop depends heavily on fertilisers the absence of which has disturbed the farmers who say “these are critical days for the crop”. The cotton crop area has already been reduced owing to spiralling prices of DAP and urea, besides shortage of water.

Many areas where cotton should have been cultivated are now being used for vegetables.

Speaking to Dawn, some farmers said three weeks ago urea fertiliser was available at Rs720 to Rs750 a bag, which was Rs100 more than the government rates.

Now the product is unavailable and even black marketers are refusing to sell it.

A trader of local vegetable market said some people had stocked urea because they had information that the government was going to increase the rates of fertilisers.

Earlier, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had announced Rs1,000 subsidy on DAP, but it did not trickle down to farmers because “it is still being sold at old rates of Rs3,100 to Rs3,200 a bag”, complained farmers.

Many other growers complained that the urea and DAP they had bought before the season were ineffective because they were fake.

The Muzaffargarh DCO claimed that the urea supply was short these days because of low production in factories. He said many other districts were equally affected, and the government was trying to meet the demand of farmers.

EDO (Agriculture) Chaudhry Shahzad said farmers should inform him about the traders who had stocked the urea and his department would take action against them.

Teams had recovered expired pesticides from six traders last week and cases had been registered against them, he added.