Farmers protest cut in gas supply to urea plants

LAHORE: Cabinet Committee on Energy's (CCoE) recommendation to divert gas from urea fertiliser manufacturing plants to other sectors will have serious negative impact on the current wheat season and also on the coming Kharif plantation, a farmer body said.

According to a statement issued on Friday, Pakistan Kisan Ittehad (PKI) strongly protested the closure of fertiliser plants, and said urea plants should remain operational without any hindrance.

PKI President Khalid Mahmood Khokhar said wheat was the most important food crop which uses more than 50 percent of the urea produced in the country.

“Any shortage of urea fertiliser during current Rabi season will bring disaster not just for the farmers of Pakistan but also food production in the country,” he added.

Current urea retail price in the country is Rs1,850/bag due to the existing shortage. Urea price was Rs1,370/bag in December 2017. This price hike already burdened farmers.

If urea production was not continued uninterrupted, the price of urea fertiliser might cross Rs2,000/bag in the market.

This would break the back of the farming community.

As per PTI chief, the price of 50kg urea bag in India was INR 268, equal to Rs536/bag here. In Pakistan it was almost 3.5 times higher at Rs1,850/bag. In many countries, fertiliser was subsidised to allow farmers to produce more crops so the country could prosper.

But this was going in the opposite direction in Pakistan.

Allowing urea to be sold at higher than maximum retail price and then shutting down plants was negligent towards the farmers of the country. Also, availability of Ammonium Sulphate and Ammonium Nitrate was important.

The present government was focusing on increasing exports. However, Khokhar cautioned that no exports of wheat, cotton or any other crop would be feasible if the price of urea was not controlled.

When urea and other fertiliser prices were low, Pakistan was able to export wheat and earn foreign exchange.

“Cotton is an even more important crop for exports. The entire textile sector will shut down if cotton is not produced in the country. It is important to prioritise subsidy and increase availability for fertilisers,” Khokhar added.

This, he said would allow farmers to produce more cotton and produce raw material for the textile sector.

Today the cotton crop was in deep trouble due to the fact that the farmer was not making money.

The reported CCoE recommendation to stop gas supply to two urea plants was against earlier Economic Coordination Committee decision.

“Gas supply to all urea plants must continue throughout 2019. The government must also make sure that urea fertiliser is not black marketed to farmers which is happening today due to its shortage,” he concluded.