December 30, 2011
Pakistan reduces the use of fertilisers
Pakistan has reduced the usage of fertilisers on its crops as it would have a negative effect on important crops like wheat, according to Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal, Chairman Agri Forum Pakistan.
"Urea application has reduced by 25% and DAP usage has decreased by 35% during the current Rabi season as compared to last year.
This year growers have used 975,000 tonnes of urea as compared to 1,300,000 tonnes of last year.
Similarly, DAP fertilisers usage was around 564,000 tonnes last year, which reduced to 363,000 tonnes this season.
Likewise, potassium fertiliserusage was also reduced by 48%," Mughal claimed.
The chairman Agri Forum said that if a comparison of fertiliser usage during November this year and last year is studied it would show that urea application in Punjab has reduced by 55%.
While break-up further shows that urea application reduced by 25% in Sindh, 48% in Khybper Pakhtunkhawa and 17% in Balochistan.
Collectively, urea application in Pakistan dropped by 48% in November as compared to last year, he said.
Regarding DAP fertiliser, Mughal maintained that its usage dropped by 13% in Punjab, 41% in KP, 14% in Balochistan and it reached the lowest level during the last five years.
Discussing the impact of reduction in fertiliser usage, Mughal said that it would result in decline in the output of Rabi crops including wheat, gram, canola, sunflower, vegetables, fruits and mustard.
There could be a decline of worth PKR100 to 150 billion (US$ 1.1 to 1.67 billion) in production of these crops, he added.