Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe has admitted that the country has short supply of Urea fertilizer on the market.

Speaking in Parliament when presenting a ministerial statement on the progress of the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), Lowe said the scarcity for the product has been registered in both central and southern regions.

“The country has a short supply of urea. The demand is much in southern region and some parts of the central region,” said Lowe.

As of February 7, 2022, the Ministry had sold 12 873.71 MT (which translates to 2,559,224 packs) representing a 69% redemption rate.

According to Lowe, the Ministry has temporarily issued a waiver on NPK fertilizer.

He said: “As an immediate and interim measure, we have temporarily allowed suppliers to access two bags of NPK where the second bag will be applied at top dressing.”

“The Agriculture field officers will assist the farmers on how and when to apply the second bag.”

Government through the Agriculture Ministry gave contract to 164 private companies to sell their fertilizer to beneficiaries at an approved price of K27,000 per bag of which Government pays K19,500 and a beneficiary pays K7,500.

Lowe has singled out influx of adulated fertilizer as one of the major challenges the Ministry is facing.

He said some were unscrupulous business persons who distributed fake fertilizer to famers. This, he said, is apparent stealing from poor farmer and government at large.