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The country had a surplus stock of fertilizer |
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News |
April 19, 2000
Dhaka, Apr 18 (UNB) – The country had a stock of 214,459 tons of urea at the beginning of April after meeting the demand of peak January-March period and the surplus would increase to 369,327 tons by this month with local produce. “After meeting the current month’s demand of only 76,864 tons, country will have a stock of 292,463 tons of urea,” said a government announcement after review of stock and supply position in the midst of the dry-season IRRI-Boro paddy cultivation. The review was made in a meeting of the advisory committee on fertilizer held in the conference room of the Agriculture Ministry with Agriculture and Food Advisor AM Anisuzzaman in the chair today (Tuesday). Industries Minister Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Ministry Matia Chowdhury and Advisor to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Suranjit Sengupta attended the meeting. The meeting was informed that the average price of 50-kg bag of urea was Tk 271 in the first week of the month against Tk 278 last year. After the stocktaking, the meeting expressed high satisfaction over smooth distribution of urea at fair price throughout the country in the just-concluded peak period, January-March. The meeting observed that the public and private-sector cooperation and coordination between Agriculture and Industries Ministry created a unique approach in the coordination of fertilizer production, distribution and price situation throughout the country, resulting in abundant supply of urea at village levels at fair price. With thanks and gratitude to all concerned for making available sufficient amount of fertilizer at farmer’s levels round the year, the meeting also expressed happiness over maintaining steady supply of urea for the last four peak and sami-peak periods from August to October which helped bumper crops for the last three years in a row. A source in the meeting said the farmers were showing increasing interest in using Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) manure as a compound fertilizer containing both phosphatic and nitrogen manure for the soil. The Bangladesh Fertilizer Association informed that they had imported about 170,000 tons of DAP so far for the season. The Industries Minister informed the meeting that to cope with the growing demand of DAP the government was going to set up two DAP plants in Chittagong with daily capacity of 1600 tons. Discussing the present stock of fertilizer at dealer’s level, the Agriculture Minister asked BFA to provide monthly stock position of fertilizer to dealers on regular basis. Appreciating the efforts of all concerned, Anisuzzaman urged the dealers, BCIC, Agriculture Extension Department and Monitoring Committee to keep the coordination spirit up to maintain sufficient fertilizer supply to the farmers. Agriculture Secretary Dr AMM Shawkat Ali, Energy Secretary Dr Toufique E Elahi Chowhdury, Chairman of BCIC M Anwarul Haq, Director General of Agriculture Extension M Enamul Haq, BFA Chairman Kofiluddin Ahmed and chief executives of concerned organizations were present in the meeting.
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