KARACHI, Aug 9: The Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Khair Mohammad Junejo, has called for growth in farm production to improve socio-economic condition of the large segment of the population in the light of limited land and water resources.
“The agriculture growth has now assumed even greater importance under the prevailing situation of declining water availability,” he said while addressing the inauguration ceremony of Engro’s NPK Fertilizer Plant, at Port Qasim, on Friday.
Over the last two decades, the increase in per acre yield of most crops remained insignificant and such a situation calls for an indepth analysis of the factors. “A timely rectification is needed to avoid any national calamity,” he added.
He attributed the low crop yields to imbalance and low fertilizer use. Fertilizers are used to make up for the loss of and maintain the nutrients at a satisfactory level for profitable farming.
Junejo said fertilizer use in Pakistan has witnessed a steady increase over the past 40 years, starting from one kg per acre in 1960 to 49 kg per acre in 2000.
However, he added, this is still low as compared to Indian Punjab’s 69 kg per acre, Egypt’s 123 kg, China’s 135 kg and Korea’s 189 kg per acre.
“We need not follow the suit, but fertilizer use has to be optimum and balanced for increasing crop production to feed the growing population,” the minister said.
He was of the view that there was a wide gap between yield of an average farmer and that of a progressive farmer within the available crop varieties and farming technologies. Progressive farmer uses the right mix of nutrients and agro-economic practices.
President and Chief Executive, Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited (ECPL), Zaffar A. Khan said that the NPK project, which had started production last year, suffered a loss of Rs57 million but the company is optimistic of achieving good results in future.
Engro plans to supply quality fertilizer at well below international prices to the farmers, he said adding company’s two joint ventures like Engro Vopak and Asahi projects had attracted $400 million investment.
NPK Manager, M. Salim said that the NPK plant, which has been completed at a cost of Rs540 million, has a design capacity to produce 100,000 tons of granulated NPK fertilizer per annum. “We plan to increase the capacity to 120,000 tons per annum very soon,” he added.
Sales Manager, ECPL, A. Samad Khan said that China has been the highest user of NPK fertilizer with nine million tons per annum followed by 2.7 million tons by Thailand, two million tons by India and 700,000 tons by Malaysia.