Engro Fertilizers and other companies of this industry have announced Rs.240 reduction in price of 50 kilogram bag. Government has already stopped the collection of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess by these companies which was charged in price from farmers after the enforcement of last PPP government legislation for this purpose in December, 2011. A cess of Rs. 375 was levied per bag which had pushed up the price to Rs.2020 per bag plus payment of transportation charges and profit of retail traders from the end consumers.
The withdrawal of Gas infrastructure Development Cess and voluntary reduction in the price by fertilizers companies will ensure supply of this input at Rs.1600 per bag, excluding the margin of profit of the trader. The cumulative reduction in price will be even then like a drop in the ocean.
Agriculture is entirely a provincial subject and government of Punjab has decided to give subsidy on the purchase of genetically modified seeds of cereal crops and insecticides. Prime Minister relief package also include Rs.50 billion for taking the agriculture from crisis. However, after the provision of these incentives by the federal and provincial governments agriculture will remain losses accruing enterprise for the farmers of small and subsistence land holdings due to not raising minimum support price and water scarcity, particularly in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa where majority of farmers own small land holdings and 1.8 million of agriculture land is rain-fed. Because of water scarcity, farmers cannot use hybrid seeds of high yield. Ironically, Charsadda and Mardan based leadership of ethnic and regional political parties with the support of leadership of mainstream PPP made Kalabagh dam an elusive project. Moreover, unwise decision of previous PTI government to spend scarce resources on a white elephant project of BRT made the construction of small dams impossible in the rain-fed areas of the province. Let us hope that federal government will allocate funds for the construction of small dams in the provinces of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.
