Lahore : The Punjab government has sent an SoS to the federal government seeking uninterrupted gas supply to the fertilizer industry to avert a looming fertilizer crisis in the country.
In the SOS sent by the Food Department of the Punjab government to the ministry of National Food Security Islamabad, it has been pointed out that the fertilizers are the basic input for growth of the crop production and disruption in gas supply in the recent weeks to some fertilizer plants has adversely hit output of the fertilizer industry.
The Punjab government has raised red flag in its letter and warned to the federal government that due to shut down of some plants , fertilizers supply has already slowed down which, it feared , could disrupt supply of urea and other fertilizers to the farmers.
The Punjab government has referred the case of gas disruption to two fertilizer plants including Buber Sher plant of Engro Group and Agritech which , according to the SoS , have already resulted in short production of around 77000 metric tons of urea.
The Punjab government also reminded of the federal government that the fertilizer industry produces around 6.6 million tons fertilizers to meet the local demand . In case of disruption of gas supply , industry may not be able to produce required production and subsequently it will increase Pakistan’s reliance on imported fertilizers in upcoming Rabi season.
Talking to NEWSMAN , All Pakistan Fertilizer Dealers Association (APFDA) Pattern – in – Chief , Mr Ghulam Ahmad , replicated the Punjab government’s point of view on gas supply to fertilizer industry. He said ” In recent weeks , at least three fertilizer plants had shut down due to gas non -supply and it has already damaged production of fertilizers considerably .”
APFDA Pattern- in- Chief added that shut down of three fertilizer plants on non -supply of gas has hit the market and added at least Rs 200 per bag of urea price. He said its peak season of rice and other seasonal crops and shortage of urea and other fertilizers can dent Pakistan’s agriculture production for the current year.
Mr Ghulam Ahmad noted rice and maize are main crops of the on-going Kharif season and its necessary that the farmers get required urea and other crops at reasonable price to use this key input judiciously and get good production of their crops to not only meet local demand , but also have surplus grains to export and earn much- needed foreign exchange for Pakistan.
