Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque on Monday said that there was no shortage of fertilisers in the country.
"There is no shortage of fertilisers in the country. But their prices are now fluctuating a little bit for some reasons," he said at a press briefing marking the 36th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), at the conference room of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Responding to a query about media reports on fertiliser price hike in the international markets, he said, "Bangladesh has to purchase fertilisers at higher rates due to price hike in the international markets."
"But despite the high prices of fertilisers in the international markets, I assure that we (Bangladesh) have no crisis of fertilisers," said the minister.
He, however, said the government did not raise fertiliser prices in the local markets in a bid to serve the interests of the farmers.
Terming the present situation "double-edged knife", Mr Razzaque said the import cost of fertiliser had increased due to its high prices in the international markets coupled with increased freight fares.
Earlier at a meeting on February 14 last, the minister said that due to Covid-19 situation, the prices of fertilisers in the international markets had increased three times compared with the year just before the start of the pandemic.
He said Tk 280 billion would be required for the government to provide subsidies for fertilisers during the current 2021-22 fiscal year.
The government provided over Tk 77 billion as subsidy during FY 2020-21.
The current budget has allocated over Tk 95 billion for subsidy purposes - the government would now require an additional amount of around Tk 190 billion.
The minister at the meeting had also mentioned that the government was seriously working on it.
He admitted that giving huge subsidies would hamper development activities.
On the other hand, he said, increase in fertiliser prices would force the farmers to suffer and might reduce food production that would lead to food price inflation (increase).
