The supply of chemical fertilisers is expected to reach a record 330,000 tonnes this paddy growing season as a fall in global prices has led the government to boost imports, the Ministry of Agricultural Development said.

According to the ministry, state-owned Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC) has procured more than 225,000 tonnes of chemical fertilisers. It has another 80,000 tonnes stored in its warehouses.

AIC spokesperson Narayan Marasini said prices had dropped by $40-50 per tonne in the world market, and AIC had been able to buy more soil fortifiers with the same amount of money.

Another public enterprise, Salt Trading Corporation, has also bought some fertiliser. In addition, the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project has released Rs250 million to procure chemical fertiliser this fiscal year, said Shankar Sapkota, deputy spokesperson for the ministry.

“We expect that timely distribution and availability of adequate fertiliser will give a much needed boost to the country’s agriculture sector,” he said. The ministry’s statistics show that the distribution of chemical fertiliser reached an all-time high of 298,677 tonnes in 2014-15. During that year, the average fertiliser consumption was recorded at 96.63 kg per hectare, the highest consumption so far.

However, fertiliser imports plunged to 135,493 tonnes in 2015-16 due to a trade embargo by India. An ensuing shortage and summer and winter droughts led to Nepal’s farm sector seeing a negative growth of 0.19 percent for the first time in the last fiscal year.

Nepal’s annual imports of chemical fertilisers are worth around Rs16 billion. The Trade and Export Promotion Centre’s figures show that fertiliser imports in terms of value dropped 34 percent to Rs9.11 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

Last December, the government slashed prices of state-subsidised chemical fertilisers following a drop in global prices. Prices of the most commonly used soil fortifiers—diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea—had been cut by Rs2 and Rs4 per kg respectively.

Marasini said that with the record quantity of fertilisers available, farmers would not face a shortage this year. “However, we are having difficulties in distribution because roads in many parts of the country have been damaged.”

According to the Agricultural Ministry’s statistics, the annual demand for chemical fertilisers currently stands at 723,000 tonnes. Subsidised fertilisers cover only one-fourth of the country’s total requirement, and the rest is met by informal imports, or shipments smuggled through the porous border with India. A study conducted by the Finance Ministry in 2006 has put the share of informal fertiliser imports at 71.6 percent of total supplies.

The government has set aside Rs5.47 billion for fertiliser subsidies for this fiscal year. Private companies in Nepal are reluctant to trade fertilisers due to their high costs and risks involved, and all imports and distribution are done by state-owned AIC and National Trading Corporation. Prices are controlled by the government.