Nearly 20,000 tonnes of Diammonium phosphate (DAP) imported by Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC) has been stuck in Kolkata, India, for the past two weeks.

Swiss Singapore Overseas Enterprises had bagged the contract for shipping the chemical fertiliser to Nepal through Sisirya Dry Port.

According to a source at AIC Regional Office in Birgunj, the consignment has been stuck in the Indian city due to delays in paperwork.

AIC's warehouses in the region have gone completely empty. The regional office maintains seven warehouses in places like Bhutan Devi Temple and Birjung Sugar Factory with a combined capacity of 21,000 tonnes. But it now has only 50 tonnes of potash in the Bhutan Devi warehouse.

The office is responsible for distributing fertilisers to 19 districts in the central region and eight districts in the western region.

According to the AIC source, besides 50 tonnes of potash in Birgunj and 1,200 tonnes of urea in Kathmandu, all other AIC warehouses across the country have run out of chemical fertilisers.

“Apart from the stocks of urea in Kathmandu and potash in Birgunj, we don’t have anything left,” the source said. “Following Friday's rainfall, farmers have started to frequent out office looking for fertilisers, just to return empty handed.”

Of the 20,000 tonnes of fertiliser stuck in Kolkata, 2,500 tonnes will be dispatched to Biratnagar, 7,500 tonnes to Bhaiwahawa and the remaining will be mobilised in Birjung.

According to the AIC source, it will take at least two weeks for the fertilisers to arrive in Birgunj even if the procedures in Kolkata are completed within a couple of days.

Moreover, AIC does not have any plans to import additional fertilisers for the next six months. “There are no plans to issue an import tender in the near future. There will be a huge shortage of fertilisers next year,” the source said.

With farmers facing fertiliser shortages now and again, lawmakers in January had urged the government bring private firms into fertiliser trade. A sub-committee of the Parliamentary Water and Agricultural Resources Committee formed last June to study issues related to fertiliser imports, distribution, quality, farmers’ access to fertilisers and the government’s current policy, had found the distribution of subsidised fertilisers was “very low”, holding down farm productivity.

The sub-committee's report has suggested drafting Fertiliser Act to properly manage and monitor its supply, use and consumption. Due to the lack of awareness, the report said, farmers have been using excessive amount of urea that has been destroying the soil.