The New Nation - Internet Edition

INADEQUATE use of non-urea fertilisers during this peak season from mid-August to September will affect the current Aman cultivation significantly across the country as media reported recently quoting agronomists and experts. Prices of non-urea fertilisers, including the triple super phosphate have more than doubled. This will ultimately push further the already high price of rice in the market. The use of fertilisers accounts for about 30 per cent of the total production cost of transplanted Aman while it is about 50 per cent for Boro paddy, according to Bangladesh Rice Research Institute scientists who fear that inadequate use of fertiliser will affect the yield.

Whatever production target is set by the government, inadequate use of non-urea fertilisers by the farmers would certainly have negative impact on its achievement. The government has targeted to produce about 136.59 lakh tonnes of Aman on about 58.20 lakh hectares of land during the current fiscal year. The production cost of paddy per hectare, meanwhile, rose to Tk 38,129 this year from Tk 27,688 last year because of price hike of fertiliser.

The farmers have to apply non-urea fertilisers like TSP and MOP every season as maintenance doses, because if the fertilisers are not applied for 2 to 3 years, there will be soil-mining which will cause gradual yield decline. Organic compost fertiliser is good for maintaining soil condition but it does not contain all necessary nutrients for the crops, according to a BRRI scientist. Nutrients mainly nitrogen, phosphate and potash are less in compost than the chemical fertilisers, and it is quite impossible to make up the shortage of nutrients using only compost fertiliser.