Barua rules out fertiliser crisis in peak season
Farmers will not face any fertiliser crisis in the coming peak season, despite some fertiliser producing units remaining inoperative due to persisting gas crisis, said Industries Minister Dilip Barua yesterday.
“We've taken precautionary measures to avert any fertiliser crisis, as the fertiliser producing units remained inoperative due to gas crisis,” Barua told journalists at a press conference at the conference room of the Industries Ministry yesterday.
The press conference was arranged to inform countrymen about the development activities of the ministry over the last 20 months.
Minister Barua firmly said that there would be no shortage of Urea, a fertiliser, in the coming Boro season, and Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company (KAFCO), a multinational fertiliser producing company, has for the first time agreed to sell all its fertiliser to Bangladesh in the peak season.
The government, however, set a demand target of fertiliser at 28.31 lakh metric tons for the current year, showing a sharp drop in targeted demand compared to the previous year's target, when it was 29.51 lakh metric tons.
Asked about the causes behind the reduced demand target, Minister Barua said: “The use of Urea fertiliser has decreased as the farmers have started using diammonium phosphates (DAP) fertiliser widely…it's being produced in two units in Chittagong, and we'll import if necessary.”
He claimed that the farmers haven't faced any fertiliser crisis during the tenure of the present government, and nobody has had to sacrifice their lives for fertiliser, as happened before.
“We will build sufficient stock of fertilisers to address the demand….currently we have a stock of 4 lakh metric tons of fertiliser, in addition there are stocks of fertiliser at the dealer-level,” he said.
On the other hand, Qatar has agreed to supply 400,000 metric tons of urea including an additional 100,000 metric tons to Bangladesh in the current fiscal, under a deal agreed between the two governments. Qatar Fertiliser Company Limited (QFCL) will supply the fertiliser, as stipulated by the agreement, which was signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Qatar in October 2009, Barua said.
He said the government is also giving priority to importing fertilisers from alternative countries apart from the Middle East and China through 'state-to-state' deals.
Replying to a question, Barua said the government would set up three new fertiliser factories, having an annual production capacity of nearly 5.77 lakh metric tons of fertiliser. “Of the three would-be factories, Shahjalal Fertiliser Project might go into production during the tenure of the government.”
Emphasising people's participation, Barua said the government would gradually offload the shares of profitable SoEs in the capital market.
He, however, neither disclosed any names of the SoEs which might go to the capital market, nor the timeframe of offloading shares.
BCIC Chairman and acting Industries Secretary KH Masud Siddiqi and Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) Chairman Ranjit Kumar Biswas were also present at the press conference.
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