Rs500 subsidy announced on each fertilizer bag

MULTAN: The Punjab government has announced Rs 500 subsidy on each fertiliser bag for current cotton sowing season to reduce growers expenses and increase their per acre yield.

Talking to The News here on Saturday, Punjab Agriculture Information senior official Naveed Asmat Kahloon said that the Agriculture Department had asked the growers to use only recommended fertilisers.

He said that the Punjab government was providing subsidy to farmers in a bid to reduce their expenses.

Earlier, the government had announced Rs 1,000 subsidy on each bag of cotton seed in the province, he told. The official said that the government had decided to provide Rs 200 to Rs 500 subsidy on each bag of DAP, Nitrophos, Nitrogen Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphate, SOP and MOP fertilisers.

The subsidy would not only reduce per acre expenses but also it would increase per acre yield, he added.

The amount of fertiliser required depends foremost on the total quantity of nutrients removed by the crop from the soil or substrate, he continued.

In order to achieve optimum yields, each crop should have at its disposal the pre-determined amount of nutrients, he added.

The fertiliser was one of many inputs, which raises production cost, he maintained. Survey of various districts of the Punjab had shown that almost all cotton growers use nitrogenous fertiliser, however, 85pc farmers use phosphoric fertiliser to increase crop production, he said.

Naveed Asmat said that like other crops, cotton requires 16 important nutrient elements for its proper growth.

These elements could be classified into three categories, he told. Primary nutrient elements were carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, he maintained. Secondary nutrient elements consist of calcium, magnesium and sulphur, he added.

Micronutrients were called zinc, boron, iron, copper, manganese, molybdenum and chlorine, he added. Of these, he continue, carbon was taken from the air; hydrogen and oxygen from water and the remaining 13 elements were provided by the soil.

Most of Punjab soils had enough supplies of these but intensive cropping and removal of crop residue from the farm had resulted in the reduced supply of the nutrients to plant, he said.

The fertilisers use had witnessed a steady increase over the last four decades, he added. Despite this increase, its fertiliser usage was still low as compared to the other countries, he added.

He said that Nitrogen was the most important nutrient element for plant growth and was widely deficient in soils. The climatic conditions in the country did not allow organic matter to accumulate and thus the level of nitrogen remains low in most of the cropped areas of Pakistan, he maintained. The usage of nitrogen fertilisers was required for good crop production, he added.