Wednesday, August 06, 2008
By Anwar Shaikh

NAWABSHAH: Interior Sindh is facing an acute shortage of urea fertiliser at a time when it is required for the cotton crop standing on millions of acres. In a meeting held here on Tuesday, DCO Khursheed Naeem Malik warned fertiliser dealers to sale the fertiliser at the prescribed rate, otherwise, severe action would be taken against them.

Meanwhile, scores of storages of the urea fertiliser were raided on the complaints of growers and sealed for checking. Authorities said the storages would be reopened after the checking. In the meantime, Association of Pesticides, Fertiliser and Seeds Dealers District President Shaukat Ali Arain and General Secretary Adil Rasheed said over 0.5 million tons of urea was imported during the last year to meet the requirements of the cotton season.

This year, they said, only 30,000 tons of urea had been imported so far. They said approximately 0.3 million to 0.35 million urea bags were required for the cotton crop each year. They added that three big companies of the country had so far supplied just 10,000 urea bags in three months.

They said the companies booked the demand of 70,000 to 80,000 urea bags three months ago whereas the total demand for the district was 0.35 million bags. They added that hoarding allegations against distributors and retailers were not true as the demanded quantity was not yet supplied by the fertiliser companies.

Our Thatta correspondent adds: An acute shortage of fertilisers has caused difficulties for the growers in the Thatta district. The Sindh Abadgar Board leaders, Abdul Rahman Khatti and Syed Shahbaz Shah, while talking to newsmen in Mirpurbathoro accused dealers of creating artificial shortage of fertilisers so as to increase their prices.

They said the price of urea had been increased by Rs 200 to 300 and was being sold over Rs 850 per bag. They said the prices of pesticides had also been increased. They demanded of the higher authorities to control the prices of agricultural commodities.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=128317

Why nobody has studied such alternate activities in Pakistan !

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080805/ap_on_...guano_photo_pkg

Bird dung means business on Peru island VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 5, 3:28 PM ET
It's a dirty job, but people love to do it.

Workers toiling 24 days a month loosen, scrape, sift, filter and bag bird dung to make some of the world's finest organic fertilizer — known as guano.

They work in a chilly breeze with the pungent smell of must, salt and ammonia on the Isla de Asia, one of 22 islands where thousands of birds create industry and employment simply by defecating.

"It's fun, everybody does something," said Lucho Moran of Lima, grinning as he moved sacks of guano by cable onto a barge. "It's busy."

Other workers say the job pays well, and they eat free.

Unfazed by the odor and grit, 100 to 150 men work 12-hour days that begin with breakfast at 3:30 a.m.

Workers wear powder from the ruddy dirt like uniforms as they hurl pickaxes into the soil and shovel raw dung, known as "guano bruto." They collect on average 77 tons (70 metric tons) of guano a day.

Then they sift it over metal mesh to extract the smaller particles that make the grade for fertilizer, which is then bagged and piled onto barges headed to the port of Pisco.

Most guano is used in the fields of Peru, where it costs a fraction of chemical fertilizer.

But about 20 percent is shipped to France, Italy and the United States, said operations manager Cesar A. Teran, where it is a favorite among organic gardeners.

Actually that could be very dangerous (Urea Fertiliser) Ammonium Nitrate is used in the formulation of a very dangerous high explosive. This is noteworthy of monitoring from a economic, food security and physical security perspective.