There is no shortage of fertiliser as the country has sufficient stock of the agri-input against the demand, according to Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.
"There is no shortage of fertiliser until December this year rather has enough stock in warehouses," the minister told journalists after a meeting with Vietnam Ambassador Pham Viet Chien at his ministry office in the secretariat on Tuesday, reports BSS.
Agriculture Secretary Md Sayedul Islam was present on the occasion.
The minister said, “Though the allocation of fertiliser has been given more this year than last year, an artificial shortage of fertiliser has been noticed in some places, which is unexpected.”
Razzaque said 383 drives were conducted by mobile courts this month when 383 dealers and retail fertiliser traders were fined Taka 5.77 million to tackle the artificial shortage.
Along with financial penalty, licences of the dealers involved in fertiliser manipulation will be revoked, he said, adding, "The licence is given by the industries ministry. Therefore, the process of sending the list of their names to the Industries Ministry for cancelling licence is underway".
Apart from dealers and retail traders, the minister said if the field administration or field level officials are found guilty of negligence, stern actions also will be taken against them.
Speaking about MOP fertiliser, the minister said, "A total of 180,000 tonnes of MOP fertiliser was imported by the government and private management till today in this month (August) while more 116,000 tonnes of MPO fertiliser will arrive in the country in the next month (September)".
“There is a demand of 51,000 tons in September and 70,000 tons of MOP fertiliser in October, which proved that the stock is more than the demand,” he added.
Earlier, in the meeting, Razzaque and Chien discussed increasing cooperation in the agriculture sector of the two countries.
Chien proposed striking a tripartite agreement among Bangladesh, Vietnam and Netherlands for boosting agricultural assistance.
