The problem of urea shortage in Punjab and Sindh is becoming acute threatening the wheat crop which needs fertilizers to grow, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.

In Layyah, farmers came from far flung areas to buy urea. There could be seen long queues of growers outside the fertilizer shops but they could not be able to buy it. The dismayed growers who travelled long and wasted hours to purchase it, started raising slogans against the administration. 

“We have been standing outside fertilizer shops to buy urea since morning, but we got no luck. Our wheat crop is destroying because of non-availability of urea but nobody is paying heed. We cultivated wheat crop after selling our cattle but now our crop is ruining,” they lamented.

In Rangpura, growers were running from pillar to post for urea. The Rs750 increase in DPA fertilizer bag has added to the woes of farmers.

The PML-N district vice president Mustafa Targar said that the government had completely failed to provide relief to the farmers whose wheat crop was destroying. He was of the view that the crisis was created because of the defective policies of government. He called upon the government to protect the rights of growers.

Kisan Board central chairman Jam Hazoor Bakhsh said that urea was not available in Bahawalpur. He alleged that wheat was selling in black adding that due to administration’s inability, the wheat target could not be achieved this year. 

In Tehsil Jatoi, the wheat cultivation had reached on the verge of destruction as the crop needs fertilizer before giving it first water. But farmers find it difficult to lay their hands on urea owning to its scarcity in the market. The ongoing urea crisis is giving utmost worry to the farmer community. 

Reporters Pervaiz Akhtar, Zahid, Mehmood Zaheer, Imran Saeedi