Pokhara, August 2:

Farmers in Kaski are badly hit after an increment in the price of the urea fertilizer by over

70 per cent.

Padam Poudel, store assistant at Pokhara-based office of the Agriculture Input Corporation (AIC) said that a kg of urea which used to cost Rs 15 three months ago now costs Rs 26.

“Indian government stopped providing subsidised urea that led to the price hike,” Poudel said.

Farmers are disappointed after the peak hour price hike as the demand is high, currently for the paddy crop. Dambar Bahadur Karki, a farmer in Kundhar blamed the government for the untimely price hike.

There was a shortage of urea two months ago. The AIC had imported 70 tonnes of urea in the third week of July. It has also imported 44 tonnes of complex fertilizer recently.

There was a shortage of complex fertilizer too in the market for a month now. The AIC office however said that there has been no remarkable increment in the price of complex fertilizer. A kg of complex fertilizer costs Rs 20.72 in the market.

Some private companies are selling chemical fertilizers to farmers at cheaper rates in comparison to AIC rates. Farmers complain that they are forced to use low standard fertilizers, as the District Agriculture Office has not tested the quality of fertilizers being sold in the market.