A big chunk of chemical fertilizers imported on subsidy for boosting agriculture yields has been allegedly misused for other commercial purposes.
A meeting of the National Assembly’s Delegated Management and Government Assurance Committee on Wednesday shared the information that around 80 plywood industries currently operating in the country are using chemical fertilizer for gluing purposes.
The fertilizers misused have come to the light in course of committee interaction with stakeholders on how to best utilize and manage around 150,000 sacks of chemical fertilizer that have been stuck in Birgunj-based dry port.
According to the official data, the government has been annually importing almost 500 thousand tons of chemical fertilizer from abroad for agriculture. It has been suspected that of the total imported Urea fertilizer, roughly 10 percent has been supplied to plywood industries.
It has been found that a huge majority of industries have mostly used urea fertilizer through the industries in course of obtaining approval for the establishment stated that a chemical namely raisin will be used as a glue.
The government has been providing chemical fertilizer to the farmers at the subsidized rate of Rs 74 per kilogram. The fertilizer is mostly not available to the farmers on time during the needed time of crop cultivation in Nepal.
The use of chemical fertilizers imported on subsidy for farmers in other commercial purposes has shown a gross misuse. The price of chemical fertilizers has increased manifold in the international market of late.
It is very tough to import chemical fertilizers with the rise in the price of raw materials used in manufacturing fertilizers, shared the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Salt Trading Corporation and Krishi Samagri Sanstha.
Committee President Ram Narayan Bidari said serious discussion with concerned ministry and agency has been put forth to draw their attention to resolve the pertinent problem of the country.
