Rains come to relief, but fertilizer shortage adds woes to farmers

Mahendranagar: Although the rains that occurred for some days came as a relief to the farmers here, they are still worried over the shortage of chemical fertilizer as it is time for rice plantation.

When there was no rainfall, the farmers used boring to draw water for irrigation, but they are now happy to have the rainfall during a long gap.

The unavailability of chemical fertilizers has hit hard the farmers. So far, only 10 per cent of arable land has been cultivated for rice plantation.

Chief of agriculture knowledge centre, Dr Dil Bahadur Bista, said as the regular supply of fertilizers was disrupted in the country, non-standard chemical fertilizer has been imported.

Sanjay Rana from Bedkot Municipality informed that they were forced to buy the chemical fertilizers at an exorbitant price- Rs 2,500 per sack. “Many farmers are not able to transplant rice for lack of chemical fertilizer.”

He added that there are no huge amount of imports. The security persons at the border were allowing for only a sack of fertilizer once on a motorcycle and bicycle. The agricultural inputs office this time provided only half a sack of fertilizer, and Rana shared the plight.

“Why the government was not managing chemical fertilizer as it was peak time for rice plantation,” he wondered and worried.

Chief of agriculture inputs company, Bal Bahadur Sah, said only 600 metric tons of DAP fertilizer arrived here for rice plantation a month back. Since then, there is no supply at all, he added.