Lahore: Pakistan Kissan Itthad Chairman Khalid khokhar said that the expected urea shortage in Pakistan will but additional financial burden on farmer’s community in coming days.
In a statement issues on Tuesday, PKI president said that for this season wheat is cultivated on almost 22 million acres in Pakistan. “Urea fertilizer consumption of this crop is around 2.2 million metric tons, its application starts on 15th December and continues till first week of February”, Khohar said.
He added that wheat crop’s productivity for Rabi 2020-21 remains crucial for Pakistan’s food security considering 3 million metric tons of wheat had to be imported in 2020 to bridge the supply-demand gap and consequently, control its market prices.
Being aware of their national responsibility, farmers with the support of federal and provincial governments, have sown wheat on a large scale this year. At this moment, wheat has been sown on more than 22 million acres in Pakistan. “With this achievement there has been a sizeable increase in demand for urea fertilizer. Its availability on controlled price of Rs1,668 per 50 kg bag is becoming challenging day by day as market rates currently range from Rs1,725 to as high as Rs1,760”, he said.
Rise in market prices, despite manufacturers are supplying urea at Rs1668/50kg bag, is mainly due to gap between rising demand and short supply. Two urea manufacturing plants are not operational, namely, FatimaFert and AgriTech, he said.
Combined production capacity of these two plants can add an additional 70,000 metric tons of urea per month in the system and most importantly, ease supply constraints in the market.
“PKI appeals to the government to take immediate action to ensure sufficient supply of urea in the market so that its timely availability at controlled rates to farmers, is ensured. Immediate corrective action will help in achieving the production target of 27 million metric tons and potentially save Pakistan from the burden of importing 3 to 4 million metric tons of Wheat again next year”, Khokhar added.
