Sirsiya Dry Port recorded a significant rise in imports of chemical and organic fertilizers in the last fiscal year due to its safer route and cheaper freight rates. Fertilizer shipments through the dry port amounted to Rs6.50 billion in 2014-15, up Rs1 billion from 2013-14. 

Harihar Poudel, information officer of the port custom office, said 144,511 tonnes of fertilizers were thansported through the port. Based on the import figure, 60 percent of Nepal’s fertilizer requirement is being brought through the dry port. 

Nepal spends more than Rs14 billion annually on importing fertilizers, with government subsidies amounting to Rs5 billion. State-owned Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC) and Salt Trading Limited are the major players in the fertilizer business. 

AIC said that the procurement of chemical fertilizers during the last fiscal year reached a historic high of 230,313 tonnes, mainly due to massive buying prompted by acute shortages in the previous year. 

According to Economic Survey 2014-15, Nepal’s chemical fertilizer use jumped sharply to 75.11 kg per hectare in 2013-14, up from 57.25 kg in 2013-14. In the previous fiscal year, AIC sold 144,000 tonnes of fertilizers.

In the last fiscal year, most of the imported chemical fertilizers came from India. Organic manure was imported mostly from Thailand. According to Poudel, AIC imported fertilizers worth Rs4.17 billion while Salt Trading Corporation’s imports were valued at Rs2.47 billion in the last fiscal year. The rest of the imports were made by private traders. 

“As fertilizers imported from third countries by sea are carried from Kolkata port to the dry port by freight train, the transportation costs are cheaper by almost half,” said Poudel. Besides, there is very little damage to the cargo. “This is why the port has become a major transportation hub.”

In the past year, fertilizers used to be imported through the Birgunj customs point. However, the import route has started shifting towards the port. Government subsidized fertilizers fulfill just 25-30 percent of the total requirement, and the rest is met by informal imports or contraband brought through the porous Nepal-India border. 

Hundreds of farmers across the country were forced to protest against the government’s inability to arrange sufficient fertilizers during the peak paddy planting season in 2013-14 when the Indian government tightened its border points to stop smuggling of fertilizers.  

In 2006, a study conducted by the Finance Ministry put the share of informal fertilizer imports at 71.6 percent. Nepal’s current annual requirement stands at 700,000 tonnes. The study showed that of the total fertilizer imports, around 50 percent are used for paddy and 15 percent for maize.