Staff Reporter :
The worried farmers are going from shop to shop to buy fertilizers to save their standing crops in the fields, but their efforts are being frustrated when they are returning to their dying fields with empty-handed.
Despite repeated assurances and promises from the government, the fertilizer is out of the market and the peasants are alleging the syndicate mechanism working behind it.
Some of the farmers are venting their angers and frustrations by blocking the streets in some districts and crying for saving their crops from destruction.
Bangladesh consumes approximately 6.9 million tonnes of chemical fertilizers annually. The four major imported chemical fertilizers are urea, triple super phosphate, diammonium phosphate, and MOP. The demand for the imported fertilizers has been reduced to 5.5 million tons in FY23.
Some 80 per cent of the total domestic demand is met through imports. Russia and Belarus were the dominant suppliers of MOP in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, farmers in different districts staged demonstrations with the demand for ensuring the supply of fertilizers available in the markets so that they can immediately apply it to their crops to save.
In Jamalpur, several hundreds of farmers staged protest on Monday in sadar upazila in demand of sufficient fertiliser since the period of using fertiliser to Ropa Aman paddy field is running out.
The agitated farmers blocked the Jamalpur-Mymensingh highway at Nandina bazar area for an hour – between 9:00am and 10:00am – halting traffic movement. Later, the farmers called their demonstration off as the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and local representatives assured them of meeting their demand.
The farmers alleged they are not getting the fertiliser as per their demand though the period of spreading fertiliser to Ropa Aman field is passing.
A group of farmers gathered in front of M/S Hayder Traders on Monday, morning to purchase the fertiliser. As the godown didn’t open even at 9:00am, they started protesting blocking the highway, they added.
However, the officials of the agricultural department claimed there is no fertiliser crisis. Chaos was created among the farmers in fear of purchasing fertiliser at higher prices.
The owner of Hayder Traders claimed he didn’t open the godown to evade the chaos as only half of the allocated fertiliser reached his godown on Monday. But the number of farmers was gathered in front of the godown was several times higher than the amount of stocked fertiliser.
On a spot visit around 10:00am, it was seen that the farmers were demonstrating on the road. Later, UNO Litus Lowrance Chiran went to the scene and took the protesters to the nearby Ranigachha union parishad premises. The UNO then made a list of farmers to provide fertiliser.
A farmer, Shafiqul Islam, of Jamalpur Sadar told this correspondent that “The paddy is about to spoil due to the scarcity of fertiliser. I went to many shops in the last eight days to buy fertiliser but to no avail. If there is no fertiliser crisis, why are the shopkeepers saying they have no fertiliser [to sell] ? “
Earlier on August 19, several hundred farmers blocked a road in Kaharol upazila town for one and a half hours in protest of not getting their required fertiliser from a government-enlisted dealer in Dinajpur.
