No hike in fertiliser price in coming years: Agri minister
The government has no plan to raise the prices of fertilisers in the coming years, said Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque on Sunday.
"The prices of fertilisers will not increase further and the government will ensure that the farmers get enough fertilisers," he said while talking to reporters after attending the meeting of 'National Coordination and Advisory Committee on fertiliser' at the Secretariat.
"We won't allow any crisis to be created over fertiliser for the continuation of food production and the government will take measures so that the farmers would not face any harassment. If they (farmers) face any harassment regarding fertiliser we will see poor crop production ," he said.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
There is a demand of 27 lakh tonnes of urea fertiliser while 5-6 lakh tonnes of DAP fertiliser in the fiscal year 2023-24 but the government has now fixed it by 16 lakh tonnes, he said.
Besides, there is a demand of 7.5 lakh tonnes of TSP fertiliser and 9 lakh tonnes of MOP fertiliser, he added.
Replying to a question about how much fertilisers is in stock now, the minister said there are four lakh tonnes of urea fertiliser in stock and 2 lakh tonnes of TSP, 2.5 lakh tonnes of DAP, 2 lakh tonnes of MoP fertiliser in stock.
"If the gas supply remains undisrupted, a little amount of fertiliser will be imported from abroad as the capability of Bangladesh Chemical industries Corporation (BCIC) has been increased. But many factories keep their production suspended due to shortage of gas," said Razzaque.
He also assured of holding a high level meeting to produce urea fertiliser locally and the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources will be requested to provide sufficient gas to the fertiliser factories.
