Agriculture Inputs Company’s (AIC) regional office here has run out of fertiliser stock due to the government’s failure to import the farm inputs on time.

The office, which can stock up to 21,000 tonnes of fertilisers in its seven warehouses, supplies urea, DAP and potash to over a dozen districts in central and western regions.

The shortage is likely to affect production of sugarcane, corn and chaite dhan, among other crops. If the crisis is not addressed in time, it could also affect paddy

production in the upcoming rainy season.

AIC does not have any fertiliser import plan for the next five months, except for a consignment of 20,000 tonnes of DAP that is on the way to Sirsiya Dry Port in Birgunj. As the company has not even started a tender process, the shortage is likely to continue until the upcoming paddy plantation season.

AIC officials said the DAP consignment will arrive in the next two weeks, but it will barely meet the demand of sugarcane producers for this season. “Had the tender process been started on time, the AIC regional office would not have faced the shortage,” an AIC official said.

Last year, the government slashed fertiliser prices in a bid to control smuggling. The price cut resulted in almost three-ford rise in the demand in the region. However, the shortage could again encourage smuggling, said stakeholders.

Rajendra Bahadur Karki, chief of the AIC regional office, declined to comment. “Details can be obtained from AIC’s central office,” he said.

Birendra Sinha, chief of District Agriculture Development Office, said the fertiliser shortage is likely to affect implementation of the “Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project”. He said his office had dispatched a letter to the Agriculture Development Ministry informing about the issue.