The government has no plan to raise the prices of fertilizers in the coming years, said Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque on Sunday.

“The prices of fertilizers will not increase further and the government will ensure that the farmers get enough fertilizers,” he said while talking to reporters after attending the meeting of ‘National Coordination and Advisory Committee on fertilizer’ at the Secretariat.

“We won’t allow any crisis to be created over fertilizer for the continuation of food production and the government will take measures so that the farmers would not face any harassment. If they (farmers) face any harassment regarding fertilizer we will see poor crop production  ,” he said.

There is a demand of 27 lakh tonnes of urea fertilizer while 5-6  lakh tonnes of DAP fertilizer in the fiscal year 2023-24 but the government has now fixed it sy 16 lakh tonnes, he said.

Besides, there is a demand of 7.5 lakh tonnes of TSP fertilizer and 9 lakh tonnes of MOP fertilizer, he added.

Replying to a question about how much fertilizers is in stock now, the minister said there are four lakh tonnes of urea fertilizer in stock and 2 lakh tonnes of TSP, 2.5 lakh tonnes of DAP, 2 lakh tonnes of MoP fertilizer in stock.

“If the gas supply  remains undisrupted, a little amount of fertilizer will be imported from abroad as the capability of Bangladesh Chemical industries Corporation (BCIC) has been increased. But many factories keep their production suspended due to shortage of gas,” said Razzaque.

He also assured of holding a high level meeting to produce urea fertilizer locally and the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources will be requested to provide sufficient gas to  the fertilizer factories.