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Submitted by:
Most. Iffat Ara Ila
Reg. No: 07-02288
MS-semester 1
Dept. of Agribusiness & Marketing
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Introduction:
Bangladesh is densely populated and agriculture based country. Agriculture is the main
source of livelihood for more than 80% of the country's population. The main purpose of
agriculture is to provide food for the increasing population. Fertilizer is considered one of
the main inputs for increasing crop yields and farm profit. To understand the role of
fertilizer for increasing production we can cite the Nobel prize-winning wheat scientist
Dr Norman E Borlaug's dialogue as "If the high yielding wheat and rice varieties were the
catalyst that ignited the Green Revolution, then chemical fertilizer was the fuel that
poured its forward thrust". This is also true for Bangladesh agriculture because the
country has virtually no possibility of increasing its cultivable land area. So, the food
production of this country can be increased through increasing irrigation facilities
together with HYV and greater use of fertilizer.
Fertilizer:
Broadly a fertilizer may be defined as any substance (chemical, organic and microbial)
that is added to soil to supply elements required for the nutrition of plants.
Fertile soil is a prerequisite for obtaining satisfactory yield of a crop. A soil is called
fertile when it supplies nutrients in an adequate amount, with a suitable proportion.
Fertilizers are applied to soil to enhance ability of a soil to supply nutrients to plants
adequately as well as proportionately in order to overcome nutrient deficiency and to
ensure higher crop yield. Balanced use of fertilizers has so many benefits. Some are as
follows:
Spoil the soil properties, osmotic pressure, pH, conductivity and water holding
capacity.
It can damage water and water resources.
Amount(000 m. ton)
Urea
TSP
DAP
MoP
NPKS
AS
Zipsum
Zinc
2700
500
300
400
150
20
130
50
Total=4250 (000 m. ton)
Production
Name
Urea
Import
Amount
(lac m.
ton)
Amount
(lac m. ton)
15
Total
( Lac m. ton)
22
Production
%
Import
%
31.82
68.18
PS=3.11
TSP
DAP
59.13
5.26
11.41
0.60
BADC=1.55
29.47
PS=2.11
56.88
0.35
3.71
9.43
33.7
BADC=1.25
63.13
MoP
PS=2.14
0
3.39
BADC=1.25
36.90
Imported urea is subsidized to make the price the fertilizer dealer pays the same as
that of domestically produced urea;
Imported TSP, MP and DAP receives a fixed subsidy which, for many years until
late 2008, had been set at 15 per cent of the import cost.
The cost to government of subsidizing imported fertilizer obviously varies with the
international price .
It has encouraged inefficiency in the domestic production of urea. Not all factories
are equally efficient and the relatively inefficient ones receive comparatively
higher subsidy. Thus the subsidy is more than absolutely necessary, leading to
waste of resources and a high fiscal cost for Government.
The relatively higher subsidies given to urea, compared to TSP and MP, in recent
years has led to unbalanced fertilizer use by some farmers, which has probably
depressed yields and may have adversely affected soil fertility.
Although there has been no repeat of the crisis of 1995, there are problems with the
system:
Local production
BCIC
import
(6 factories)
Factory gate and buffer stocks
in district godown
District committee
gives allotment
to the Upazila
Fertilizer & Seed
Monitoring Committee
Retailers
Farmers can buy fertilizer from
both dealers and retailers
Upazila
committee gives allotment
to the BCIC
Local production
Private import
& BADC
(1 TSP & 1 DAP factory)
District committee
gives allotment
to the Upazila
Fertilizer & Seed
Monitoring Committee
Upazila
committee gives allotment
to the BCIC dealers at
Retailers
Farmers can buy fertilizer from
both dealers and retailers
Importers: Bangladesh imports all of the DAP, MoP and a part of SSP and Gypsum,
Zinc, and Ammonium sulphate (AS). Import and marketing of a portion of the TSP, DAP
and other fertilizers (MoP, SSP, Gypsum, magnesium sulphate and micronutrients) are
controlled by the private sector. The government determines the requirement for different
fertilizers for a budget year and then allows importers to meet up the demand. There are
140 importers in Bangladesh. Currently, the importers import DAP and zinc from USA,
TSP from China, MoP from CIS, SSP (powder) and Gypsum from India, and AS from
Korea according to the annual needs of the country.
Dealers: The fertilizer dealers are usually large, affluent traders. They invest large
amounts of capital in their businesses. They have their own warehouses. They either lift
their fertilizers from local factories or import them from abroad. In case of urea and TSP,
they only collect the Delivery Order (DO) for lifting fertilizer, from factory and sell them
to subdealers. Their activities are concentrated in the local market. In fact, they are the
traders who mainly control the fertilizer market. The dealers purchase a fixed portion of
the fertilizer from the factories and another portion of fertilizers from the importers.
Sub dealers: The sub-dealers are the smaller traders. Their investment is much smaller
than those of the union dealers. They purchase fertilizer mainly from wholesale dealers.
Occasionally, they collect fertilizer from the factories or import fertilizer through joint
initiatives. Shamsul Alam, et.al. (2007) found that on an average sub-dealers purchased
80% from dealers. They sell fertilizer to the farmers at fixed prices.
Generally, farmers collect fertilizers from three different sources:
BCIC appointed fertilizer dealers and their representative (sub-dealer) shops
BADC dealers shops
Local fertilizer retailers shops
profit;
Subsidized prices are usually below the market-clearing price hence encouraging
Recommendations:
For efficient marketing and distribution of fertilizers at right quantity, at right time and
at right place some further recommendations can be made:
Farmers are often deceived of the quality and prices of fertilizers especially
Organic fertilizers have been known to improve biodiversity (soil life) and longterm productivity of soil and may prove a large depository for excess carbon
dioxide.
Organic nutrients increase the abundance of soil organisms by providing organic
matter and micronutrients for organisms such as fungal mycorrhiza,(which aid
plants in absorbing nutrients), and
Can drastically reduce external inputs of pesticides, energy and fertilizer, at the
cost of decreased yield.
Organic fertilizers may contain pathogens and other disease causing organisms if
not properly composted
Nutrient contents are very variable and their release to available forms that the
plant can use may not occur at the right plant growth stage
Organic fertilizers are comparatively voluminous and can be too bulky to deploy
the right amount of nutrients that will be beneficial to plants
More expensive to produce
References: