Urea left in the open
Thousands of bags full of urea fertilizer have weathered under the sun and in rains over the last two years at extended courtyards of two northern river ports.
In the process, fertilizer, which is otherwise in granular form, has absorbed moisture and turned rocky.
Dozens of workers now hammer the hardened fertilizer to get it back to its original form and then sun-dry it for repackaging so that dealers take deliveries and sell it to farmers of 16 northern districts during the peak Boro season when urea is mostly applied to paddy fields.
At least two lakh tonnes of urea is piled up at Baghabari and Nagarbari ports, awaiting transportation to the north, fertilizer dealers and port officials confirmed to The Daily Star.
Excess fertilizer was imported, which Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) warehouses in the northern districts could not accommodate due to lack of space, resulting in leaving it out in the open.
Covering it with sheets of tarpaulins could not save it from moisture from rains. Such low-quality urea is less effective, farmers of the area complained.
Milon Hossain, a farmer of Belchapri village in Pabna, said farmers now had to apply more urea than what they used to do before.
Another farmer Sobhan Ali said that despite objections dealers were supplying them with dampened urea.
Dealers, however, put the blame on BCIC for supply of poor quality fertilizer.
President of Fertiliser Association's Pabna district unit Idris Ali Bishwas told this correspondent that the BCIC authorities had not taken any step after dealers requested them not to supply poor quality urea.
Instead, they were forced to receive dampened urea for marketing, said Idris, a central committee member of Bangladesh Fertilizer Association.
BCIC North Bengal Regional Office refused to make any response to inquiries about such practices of supplying substandard urea to the dealers.
“The BCIC headquarters have directed us not to speak to journalists,” said Shamim Hossain, regional officer of BCIC, Bogra.
Last year former food minister Abdur Razzaque, a member of parliamentary standing committee on the industries ministry, made it clear at a committee meeting that BCIC should never distribute fertilizer that has been solidified.
This correspondent visited both the ports over the last couple of days and saw dampened and rocky urea being hammered and sun-dried.
Urea was imported almost double the amount needed in the last two years, said Baghabari port officer SM Sazzadur Rahman, adding that BCIC could not keep the excess fertilizer in its storage house due to space constraints and so it remained in the ports.
“Urea meets the demand for nitrogen in the crop fields. At least 40 to 45 percent nitrogen demands are met by urea, but the presence of nitrogen deteriorates when it gets dampened and becomes rocky," said agriculturist Zafar Sadek.
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