KARACHI: Fertilizer sales including urea recorded strong growth during April due to farmers sowing Kharif crops like rice and cotton.
According to data released by the National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC), total fertilizer off-take in April recorded a 27 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth to 558,000 tons largely because of heavy urea off-take (375,000 tons), reported Express Tribune.
Planting season of every crop initiates from lower Sindh moving to Upper Sindh and concludes in Punjab contingent on the climate.
Sindh Abadgar Board’s representative Syed Mehmood Nawaz Shah said utilization of urea was higher during the plantation season and its use remains high all through the year.
He added utilization of fertilizer was recording an increase because of rising awareness amongst farmers for using a significant quantity of it to achieve desired yields which raises farmer’s income and subsidy on fertilizers.
Till now, farmers are said to have planted 40 percent of the cotton crop and 10 to 15 percent of the rice crop and cotton plantation will end by May and rice cultivation in Sindh by July.
Urea sales recorded a 50 percent surge, touching 375,000 tons in April this year against 250,000 tons in the same period of last year (SPLY).
Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) sales recorded a 28 percent fall in April 2018, touching 60,000 tons compared to 96,000 tons in April 2017.
The fall in DAP sales isn’t surprising since it sees heavy usage during wheat (Rabi) plantation season which concluded in March 2018.
But fall in DAP sales was attributed to a major price increase of 22 percent on a YoY basis.
During January-April 2018, sales of urea were recorded at 1.63 million tons, posting a 45 percent increase and DAP sales went up 6 percent, touching 434,000 tons in the above-mentioned period.
