Fertilizers are essential for every crop. Fertilizers come in the shape of DAP, UREA, Phosphorous, Potassium, etc. Fertilizers help farmers’ crops yield more. So, governments try to provide fertilizers at the lowest possible price to farmers so that farmers don’t bear many burdens in growing crops.
The economic coordination committee ( ECC ) approved the Prime minister’s package of subsidy on fertilizers on Thursday 29 October 2020 for the Rabi crop especially the wheat. According to the ECC, the government will provide a subsidy of 1000 rupees per bag of 50kg on fertilizers DAP, Phosphorous, and Potassium fertilizers.
Previously the government was already providing subsidy on fertilizers but the mechanism was different and there were many flaws in that mechanism. In that mechanism, the government attached a coupon with every bag and they had to send a message containing a token number from the coupon in the bag. In this mechanism, many farmers were unaware of the token and they sold out at 100 rupees or gave it for free to some experts who used tokens and get all money.
But now the subsidy is direct in which the price of the bag will be reduced which will benefit every farmer.
Agriculture is the backbone of the economy. It constitutes almost 26 percent of Pakistan’s economy. Now the government is keen to develop the agriculture sector.