Demand for fertiliser grows

Agricultural activities have gained some momentum as fertiliser offtake rose by 63% month-on-month to 994,459 tons in November 2022. “Wheat crop has reached a stage where its fertiliser needs have gone up,” Aamer Hayat Bhandara, Co-founder of Agriculture Republic, told The Express Tribune. “Farmers have learnt a lesson from the previous year when urea not only got costlier, but also disappeared from the market. This year, they don’t want to take any risk and are procuring it at whatever cost it is available,” he said. Potato is another crop that has a good demand for fertiliser. It is a short-duration crop spanning three to four months that requires urea in the second month of planting. On a year-on-year basis, however, fertiliser sales went up by a meagre 2%. Among nutrients, nitrogen and phosphate offtake increased by 3.6% and 3.8% whereas potash demand decreased by 92.3%. Sindh, which has been hit hard by this year’s floods, is yet to see its agriculture sector accelerating the recovery from losses. “The agriculture sector has not achieved significant recovery so far. After floods, no crop has reached the stage of harvesting or given any return,” said Miran Mohammed Shah, President of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.