KATHMANDU- Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has sought the support of Bangladesh to address Nepal’s current shortage of fertilizer. On a telephone conversation with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, on Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Oli requested her for an ‘urgent supply’ of urea to Nepal.
In a tweet following the telephone conversation, Prime Minister Oli also informed that his request was taken positively by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Hasina.
“This afternoon, I had fruitful discussion over telephone with Prime Minister of Bangladesh HE #SheikhHasina on various aspects of Nepal- Bangladesh relations. She has positively taken my request for the urgent supply of urea for this crop season,” wrote Prime Minister Oli in his tweet, which was followed by another one where he stated that they also discussed enhancing cooperation between the two countries on various issues.
“We underlined the need for enhancing cooperation between our two countries on trade, energy and transit among others,” he added.
Prime Minister Oli had reached out to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for support in supplying urea as farmers across Nepal have been facing an acute shortage of the chemical fertilizer during the cropping season of paddy.
The nation-wide shortage of urea has also prompted many farmers to seek the fertilizer in the black market at exorbitant prices.
Though the government-owned Agriculture Input Company had provided contracts to two companies for the import of 50,000 metric tons of urea, the delay in the supply has affected millions of farmers across the country.
