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Curb adulteration of fertilisers

Analysts call for strong monitoring, at roundtable organised by The Daily Star and Katalyst

Star Business Report
Bangladesh should take serious steps to stop adulteration of fertilisers as substandard agricultural input decreases yields and increases the cost of farming, analysts said yesterday.
There has to be strong monitoring to check the quality of imported potassium, potash and phosphate fertilisers during storage and distribution, said Md Abdul Kader, a professor of the Department of Agronomy at Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh.
Chaitanya Kumar Das, director for field service wing at the Department of
Agricultural Extension, echoed Kader, saying adulteration is taking place inside the country.
There are areas in Bogra, Jessore and Jhenidah where people start producing adulterated fertiliser at the stroke of midnight and wrap up their activities before dawn, according to Das.
To stop the menace, the government has recently increased the fine against adulteration, he added.
Adulteration is continuing and it seems everyone knows where it is happening, said Mushfiqur Rahman, former secretary general of Bangladesh Crop Protection Association.
“The government should strengthen monitoring."
The comments came at a roundtable on the balanced use of fertiliser, held at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka yesterday. The newspaper organised the event in association with Katalyst, Naafco (Pvt) Ltd and Society for Media and Suitable Humancommunication Techniques, a nongovernmental organisation.
Katalyst aims to increase the income for poor men and women in rural areas, while Naafco is engaged in farming and agricultural equipment business. The main driving force of the economy is agriculture, which comprises 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Of the agricultural income, crop agriculture alone accounts for 55 percent.
The boost to farm yield would be crucial in the coming years as the country loses 0.66 percent of farm land to mainly non-farm uses while 20 lakh are added to the population every year.
In his presentation, Kader said the rate of adulteration goes up in case of privately imported fertilisers.
Some locally produced fertilisers, such as gypsum, are also highly adulterated: they contain higher amounts of heavy metals, which is alarming for soil health.
Speakers called for a balance between chemical and organic fertilisers to ensure fertility of the soil and high yield of crops.
Balanced fertilisation means application of plant nutrients in sufficient amounts, appropriate forms and ratios while maintaining the presence of sufficient organic matter in soil.
Kader said his study showed that crop yield shot up 80 percent thanks to the balanced use of fertilisers. "Farmers are using highly imbalanced mix of fertilisers."
Crop plants require 16 nutrient elements for their optimum growth, development and yield.
Most of the farmers are not using any micronutrient - copper, iron, manganese,
molybdenum, zinc, boron - because of their high prices and lack of motivation.
Mixed fertiliser is very good in terms of balanced fertilisation, which was widely accepted by the farmers in the early2000s.
But due to serious adulteration, mixed fertiliser is now almost out of market and farmers have lost their interest, he said.
The government should work to encourage farmers to use balanced fertiliser as well as organic fertiliser, a number of experts said.
Shahidul Islam, former director general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, said the government closely monitors the production and distribution of fertilisers that are most important and give subsidies.
But it does not look after fertilisers that provide micronutrients, which contribute greatly to the quality of crops.
Islam also said the era of single fertiliser is long gone, as new crops have arrived. "We have to put emphasis on quality control," he added.
Bangladesh should try to use the available cow-dung in an effective way, said Delawar Hossain Mollah, chief scientific officer of the Soil Resource Development Institute or SRDI, a government organisation.
Md Nazmul Hasan, principal scientific officer of SRDI, said balanced fertiliser requires the right mix of all fertilisers.
MA Mannan, a professor at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University,
suggested forming groups of farmers as it is easy to convince them when they are united.
Debraj Agarwal, chief executive of Annapurna Agro Service, said the government should provide subsidies to organic fertilisers like it does for urea.
Yusuf Alam, product manager of ACI Fertiliser, which accounts for half of the organic fertilisers manufactured in the country, said the public private partnership framework can be utilised to promote organic fertiliser.
DAE's Das also said farmers need one or two mobile apps, instead of thousands, where they would get all the information they need.
MM Huda, director of Naafco, called for ensuring fair price for the farmers.
Reaz Ahmad, assignment editor of Hie Daily Star, moderated the roundtable.
Ahmad said the cropping intensity is 215 percent in Bangladesh, which might be the highest in the world.
"It signifies how much soil mining we are doing to meet our demand. We have to keep this in mind and think what we are giving back to the soil.”
"It can be done through application of a certain dose of chemical fertilisers, organic or other forms. We have to judiciously apply them so there is no overdose," he added.
Shahnoor Wahid, special supplements editor of The Daily Star; and Jannat Adib Chowdhury, manager of Katalyst, also spoke.