The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein yesterday said that there is a sufficient stock of urea fertilizer to meet the demand during the coming boro season and there would be no crisis of the same in the country.

"There is enough stock of fertilizer in the country and a good quantity of the same is in the pipeline," the Adviser told newsmen after a meeting of the Advisers' Committee on Government Procurement at cabinet conference room.

Presided over by Barrister Mainul Hosein the meeting was attended by Communications Adviser MA Matin and Industries Adviser Geeti Ara Shafiya Chowdhury.

The meeting approved import of 75,000 metric tonnes (MT) of bagged Prilled Urea at a cost of Tk 194 crore, 62,500 MT of bagged Granular Urea at a cost of Tk 169 crore and 50,000 MT of Phosphoric Acid at a cost of Tk 132 crore. The annual demand of fertilizer in the country is 28 lakh MT of which 17 lakh MT is being met through local production.

Barrister Mainul Hosein said this year the government will procure 4.5 lakh MT of fertilizer from the Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (KAFCO) of which 1.28 lakh MT of fertilizer already been collected. "Nearly 4.37 lakh MT of urea is in the government stock… another two lakh MT of urea is in the pipeline," he said.

The Adviser said price of urea in the international market marked a sharp rise.

However, the Adviser admitted that some complexities did exist in the distribution of urea. According to him, at present urea is not being distributed to the union level from the upzila level.

"We will sit with the Ministry of Agriculture immediately to resolve the problem in the distribution channel," Mainul Hosein said.