Minister for Agriculture Mahendra Raya Yadav blames the previous government for the shortage of fertilizer
By Our Reporter
Again, the farmers across the country are facing the problem of fertilizer shortage. The governments which have been claiming for years to make the country self-reliant repeat the same tall talks when the news stories about the shortage begin to circulate. Of course, fertiliser shortage is the recurring problems facing by our farmers. But the government looks helpless every year when it is paddy plantation season.
The lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Monday raised the issue of fertilizer shortage prompting the House to endorse a motion regarding the problem of fertilisers unanimously.
The House unanimously endorsed a special proposal to direct the government to supply chemical fertilisers to the farmers by applying all measures.
When consensus from all political parties was impossible to table the proposal of postponement submitted by CPN-UML chief whip Bishal Bhattarai for a decision, the special proposal was endorsed unanimously in the initiative of Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota.
After the endorsement of the special proposal, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota directed the government to take all possible measures to provide chemical fertilisers to the farmers.
“This House’s serious attention has been drawn to the fact that chemical fertilisers, which are essential for increasing agro-products, are not available during this season of paddy plantation, key staple crop of Nepal. This meeting of the House of Representatives directs the Government of Nepal to take all possible measures to make the essential chemical fertilisers easily available to the farmers, giving priority to solving the problems facing the agricultural sector whose contribution to GDP is 25 per cent,” read the special proposal.
Earlier, furnishing the queries of lawmakers regarding the shortage of fertlisers, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Mahendra Rai Yadav said that the required amount of fertilisers is likely to arrive in Nepal by the end of July.
Admitting the government’s inability to provide the farmers with chemical fertilisers in time, he said the process of importing 150,000 metric tonnes of chemical fertilisers by the Agricultural Inputs Company Limited and 117,000 metric tonnes by the Salt Trading Company had started but it could not be brought in time.
Minister Yadav also said that action has been initiated against the contractor who did not bring the fertlisers in time.
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