Dhangadi, November 19

With the time for sowing wheat about to start, farmers in Kailali are facing shortage of chemical fertiliser.

Chemical fertiliser crunch has hit local farmers hard in the district after Agriculture Materials Company Limited Regional Office, Dhangadi, failed to provide them sufficient fertiliser.

The fertiliser received from the company has been distributed to local farmers through 246 cooperatives in the district. Manager at Ghodaghodi Municipality-based cooperative Ram Bahadur Saud said they were compelled to send farmers away empty-handed due to the crisis. “We received only 20 quintal fertiliser once and that has already finished,” he added.

Chipuram Chaudhary, a local farmer at Kailali Rural Municipality, said he had ploughed the field for sowing wheat before Tihar festival, but he has yet to sow wheat due to fertiliser crunch. “I am quite hopeful that I will receive the fertiliser soon,” he said.

Most farmers in the district are waiting for early arrival of chemical fertiliser. Some of them have sown wheat without fertiliser while others have been sowing after fetching fertiliser from Bardiya district.

Local farmers cultivate wheat on around 45 hectare in Kailali. Wheat farming has been diminishing every year.

Earlier, Agriculture Materials Company Limited Regional Office, Dhangadi had demanded 2,500 metric tonnes di-ammonium phosphate and 5,000 metric tonnes urea for this season. Meanwhile, company chief Durga Prasad Pandey said only 1,900 metric tonnes DAP and 700 metric tonnes urea were distributed in October and November. He said the fertiliser crunch had hit farmers hard after Salt Trading Corporation did not supply adequate fertiliser.