Unbalanced use of fertiliser against the government's recommendations might cause crop yield gap as well as an impediment to food security, experts observed at a national level research review workshop on Sunday.
To minimise the gap, a study on the gap between the recommended amount of fertiliser and the amount actually used by farmers is now in its final stage, said officials at the programme.
Agriculture Secretary Md Sayedul Islam inaugurated the 6-day final review workshop on the project 'Nutrient Management for Diversified Cropping in Bangladesh (NUMAN),' held at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) Auditorium in the capital.
The study is being conducted by Murdoch University of Australia with funding from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research jointly with the Krishi Gobeshona Foundation, while BARC, BARI, BRRI, BAU and Soil Resources Development Institute are among the partners.
Professor Richard Bell at Murdoch University is leading the research. The five-year project started in 2018 and will end within December this year.
The agriculture secretary said that the recommendations obtained through this research would be helpful in the country's fertiliser management and policy formulation.
He said unbalanced (overused or underused) nutrient use compared to the government recommendations is a great concern for the country that contributes even to crop yield gaps.
Field findings demonstrate that overdose or underuse could minimise farm income while it is a threat to sustainable agriculture due to harmful off-site losses of nutrients, he said.
Murdoch University Vice-Chancellor Andrew Dicks, BARI Director General Debashish Sarker, BARC Executive Chairman Bakhtiar Hossain, among others, spoke at the inauguration ceremony.
However, following a tectonic rise in fertiliser prices around the globe as well as a supply crunch, the government cut fertiliser usage requirements for FY23.
The Department of Agriculture Extension has set a requirement for 6.4 million tonnes of fertiliser for the year which was 6.56 million tonnes in FY22.
In FY22, farmers used nearly 2.6 million tonnes of urea, 1.65 million tonnes of DAP, 0.75 million tonnes of MOP, 0.7 million tonnes of TSP, 0.55 million tonnes of gypsum, 0.141 million tonnes of zinc sulfate and 0.178 million tonnes of other fertilisers.
For the last one decade, fertiliser requirements increased by 4.0-5.0 per cent year-on-year, according to the agriculture ministry.
