KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 4
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Development (MoALD) has stated that the 30,000 metric tonnes of chemical fertilisers will be imported within the last week of December.
Joint Secretary and Spokesperson for MoALD Prakash Kumar Sanjel informed that 30,000 metric tonnes of urea will arrive in Nepal in last week of the December as per government-to-government (G2G) agreement.
On February 28, the government had signed a G2G agreement with India for the supply of fertilisers over the next five years to bypass the lengthy tender process.
Under this agreement, Nepal can get 565,000 tonnes of urea and 370,000 tonnes of DAP fertilisers over a five-year period.
As per the MoALD, Nepal needs around 600,000 tonnes of fertilisers annually, for which the government had allocated Rs 15 billion for subsidies in the current fiscal year.
Moreover, the government has secured an additional source of Rs 16 billion from the Ministry of Finance in mid-July, according to the ministry.
As per MoALD, 110,000 metric tonnes have been imported so far during the current fiscal year out of the tender called for the purchase of 257,000 metric tonnes of fertilisers through the two state entities, the Agriculture Inputs Company Ltd (AICL) and the Salt Trading Corporation.
Of them, 86,500 metric tonnes have been distributed across the country.
Similarly, the government has 42,983 metric tonnes of fertiliser in storage, with 35,449 metric tonnes at AICL and 7,934 metric tonnes at STC.
As per National Fertiliser Policy, 2001, 20 per cent of the total demand should be in stock for the next fiscal year, which means the country should have 120,000 metric tonnes in storage.
However, according to a report by the Office of the Auditor General in 2021, the average stock of fertiliser over the last five fiscal years was just 58,497 metric tonnes.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 5, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
