Stern action against fertiliser adulteration sought

Discussants at an opinion sharing meeting with the journalists here recently called for stern action against those found to be guilty in any sort of fertiliser adulteration, possession and marketing to protect the soil health from degradation.
Jano Udyog, a cluster of some non-government development organisations, arranged the meeting styled ‘Excessive of Indian fertiliser and environmental degradation in Barind area’ at the head office of Agriculture Sustainable and Socio-Economic Development Organisation (ASSEDO).
Executive director of ASSEDO Rabiul Alam was the main speaker. He asked all to resist unauthorised intrusion of Indian substandard fertiliser and adulteration for protecting the region’s environment from dilapidation.
Executive director of SEDAIPO Shalah Uddin Ahmed was in the chair.
Main thrust of the programme was to create mass awareness about the use of adulterated fertiliser in the crop field along with forging a social movement to resist the unabated smuggling of the spurious fertiliser so that the region including its vast tract of Barind area could be protected from ecological hazards.
The speakers said the soil fertility has gradually been decreasing due to frequent uses of adulterated fertiliser resulting in reduction of soil productivity and urged the local administration and others concerned including the traders of agricultural inputs to play responsible role to prevent the malpractice.
They said the unabated marketing and selling of spurious and adulterated fertilisers have been exploiting farmers side by side affecting the crop production in the region.
He said some greedy businessmen are involved in fertiliser adulteration at different parts in the region with the hope of getting more profit within short time taking advantage of farmers’ ignorance or lack of awareness.
Rabiul Alam said the present government has already reduced price of the fertiliser through subsidy with a view to reducing the cost of agricultural production. Despite the government effort, he said, a dishonest and selfish circle of businessmen are smuggling inferior quality of Indian fertiliser and selling those to the farmers at cheaper rate causing serious health hazards side by side depleting soil productivity.
He said hundreds and thousands bags of counterfeit Indian ‘Novoratna’ and ‘Porosh’ branded fertilisers are being smuggled into the country through Godagari and Chapainawabganj frontiers deceiving the farmers of getting optimum farm output.
The probable consequences of using adulterated fertilisers are permanent yield declination and declining soil fertility.
“Like other fertilisers as the essential requirement of chemical fertilisers, farmers are exploited regularly through the Zinc and Boron fertilisers at the time of purchasing,” said agriculturist Rabiul.
He viewed that exploitation of farmers by dishonest businessmen during the use of chemical fertilisers is completely unexpected and suggested proper and extensive functioning of the district fertiliser standardisation committee to resist fertiliser adulteration.
To overcome the crises, the meeting put forward a seven-point demands which included farmer awareness, stoppage of fertiliser smuggling, stern action against the smugglers and adulterators, strong monitoring committee against the adulteration and wide-ranging promotion of eco-friendly organic and bio-fertiliser. 
 
Courtesy of BSS, RAJSHAHI