-60-65 lakh tons fertilizers is used in country annually
-BADC-BCIC import 50-55 lakh ton of fertilizers
-Godown capacity is about 7 lakh tons
-BCIC face crisis by shortage of storage
A large amount of fertilizer is wasted in sun and rain due to lack of storage. Even though the government gives subsidy of Tk thousands crores every year to make quality fertilizers available to the farmers, domestically produced and imported fertilizers are not properly stored.
About 65 lakh tons of fertilizers are produced and imported annually. But the storage capacity of the warehouse is only about 7 lakh tonnes. Although the government took up a project six years ago to build warehouses in 34 districts to store manure, warehouses have not yet been constructed in any district. As a result Tk thousands crores of fertilizers are losing value due to falling under the open sky. And the farmers are cheating by buying that substandard fertilizer. There is no solution. Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) has informed the sources of this information.
According to the relevant sources, BCIC took up the project of construction of warehouses in 34 districts in 2018 to deliver urea fertilizer quickly to the farmers at the time of need. The project was supposed to be implemented by June 2021. The project was later extended to June 2022 without cost escalation and again in 2023 to June 2025. It increased the expenditure to Tk 2 thousand 482 crore 84 lakh (revised). However, even after five years, the construction work of the project has not yet started.
But less than one year is left for the duration of the project. A report by the Ministry of Planning's Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) expressed displeasure over the non-completion of the project on time. The construction work could not be started due to the disagreement of MPs on which area the fertilizer warehouse would be, complications in land acquisition and repeated changes of project managers.
Still the land in Patuakhali, Kushtia and Madaripur has not been acquired. However, if the new manure warehouses are built, an additional eight lakh ton of manure can be stored. As a result, fertilizer can be imported and stocked on time. It will not stress during the season. Besides, the government will save Tk 600 crore annually.
According to sources, fertilizers are supplied across the country through Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and BCIC. About 60 to 65 lakh tons of fertilizers are used in the country annually. BADC and BCIC import 50 to 55 lakh ton of fertilizers. But at present the storage capacity of the two institutions is about 7 lakh ton. As a result, even after storing manure in heaps in warehouses, it has to be stored under the open sky. Due to the lack of warehouses in all districts, farmers are delayed in getting fertilizer and the cost is high. And dealers don't want to take lakhs of tons of manure kept under open sky due to reduced quality.
Besides, transport owners also do not want to supply because sacks are damaged. But annual subsidy on fertilizers is about Tk 6000 crores. Annual demand for fertilizer is about 65 lakh tons. That amount is supplied through production and import of fertilizers. Hundreds of sacks of manure were dumped in many areas including Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Khulna, Jashore, Kushtia, Barishal, Natore, Chattogram. BCIC is not able to receive this huge amount of fertilizer due to storage shortage.
Meanwhile, in relation to keeping fertilizers under the open sky, Director General of Soil Resources Development Institute Md Jalal Uddin said that urea and DAP fertilizers are the most affected if they are kept under the open sky. Not only the quality is reduced, the weight of urea fertilizer is also reduced. 15 to 20 percent loss may occur. The loss of DAP can be 10 to 15 percent. So it is important to store manure properly. Otherwise, there will be problems in production. Government initiatives to conserve manure need to be implemented as soon as possible.
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