Fertilizer production rises by 2.6pc in July-March 2018-19.
Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi
According to the analysis recorded by the Ministry of Finance FY2019, fertilizer is the most important (and an expensive) input contributing 30 to 50 percent to crop yield in Pakistan. Its share in cost of production of major crops is around 10 to 15 percent. Analysis also showed that the local production of fertilizers during 2018-19 (July-March) grew by 2.6 percent over the corresponding period of previous year. This increase is because of functioning of two urea manufacturing plants like Agritech and Fatima Fertilizer, as supply of LNG was available on subsidized rates. The supply of imported fertilizer also grew by 4.8 percent.
Therefore, total availability of fertilizer rose by 3.2 percent during fiscal year 2019. Total offtake of fertilizer nutrients was declined by 7.3 percent. Nitrogen offtake also declined by 2.89 percent and phosphate by 18.2 percent. Potash offtake registered a rise of 4.55 percent during 2018-19 (July-March). Reduction in fertilizers offtake was mostly because of its high prices, despite receiving subsidy from the Government of Pakistan. There was dissimilar type of subsidies offered during FY 2018-19 such as; implementation of uniform tax rate of 2 percent for all type of fertilizers, the Government of Pakistan ensured adequate supplies of urea in Rabi season by offering a subsidy of Rs. 1,292 per bag for 105 thousand tonnes of imported urea, local manufacturers have also subsidized Rs.714 per bag of urea as government provided cheaper feed gas and the government has presently operationalized two fertilizer plants, located at SNGPL network, by providing Rs. 916 per bag of urea subsidy for using LNG.
Fertilizer Supply Demand Situation (000 Tonnes)
Description###Urea###DAP###Urea###DAP###Urea###DAP###
Opening stock###316###190###115###729###135###599###
Imported supplies###0###1,063###105###679###100###18###
Domestic Production 2698###374###2,923###354###3,217*###360###
Total Availability 3,014 1,627###3,143###1,762###3,452###977###
Offtake/Demand###2,887 901###3,033###1,164###2,942###865
Write on/off###-12###3###25###1###0###0###
Closing stock###115###729###135###599###510###112
Analysis also identified that total availability of urea during Kharif 2018 was recorded 3.014 million tonnes comprising of 316 thousand tonnes of opening inventory and 2.698 million tonnes of local production. Urea offtake was about...
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