Monday's sudden production shutdown of Jamuna Fertiliser Factory due to mechanical troubles for the third time in the last six months however would not last for more than 10 days, the BCIC assured.

A day after the government-formed fertiliser monitoring committee had sent directives to dealers and transport owners to rush stockpiled urea from Amin Bazar, Dhaka to the outreaches, several hundred fertiliser-hungry farmers yesterday put up a barricade on the Satkhira-Asasuni road at Dhulihar Bazar in Satkhira Sadar upazila.

Furious at the scarcity and high price of urea in Dhulihar Bazar, the farmers felled trees on the road, causing traffic snarl-up from 8:00am to 11:00am, the police said.

Addressing a spontaneous rally mostly of the farmers who had come to the bazaar to buy fertiliser, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal central leader and Dhulihar UP Chairman Modasserul Haque Huda demanded supply of fertilisers at reasonable prices to save the Irri and boro crops.

The farmers removed the barricade after Sadar UNO SM Ashrafuzzaman and a police team went to the spot and assured them of supplying fertilisers by 2:00pm yesterday.

BCIC sources said, after producing 1,615 metric ton urea on Monday, Jamuna Fertiliser Factory tripped in the night on some leaks developed in two urea plant tubes. Earlier this month, the same problem caused the factory at Tarakandi in Jamalpur to remain shut for one week.

"It'll take no more than 10 days to repair the damage. We've now a reserved stock of 14,000 MT urea at the factory," a BCIC source said, attributing the repeated closures of this or that factory under the corporation to poor funding for routine maintenance and ageing of the plants.

Sources said the BCIC has a ready stock of 182,000 MT of urea at its factories and 21 buffer godowns across the country.

Sources said the price hike of diesel, used by fertiliser-carrying trucks and barges, was the main cause for some localised supply shortfall of fertiliser in Satkhira, Shepur and Jessore regions.