Market Reform And Farm Level Inorganic Fertilizers Use In Bangladesh
ABSTRACT
Different types of fertilizers are used in Bangladesh, among them Urea is the first, Triple
Super Phosphate (TSP) is the second and Mureate of Potash (MP) is the third in position and
consist on an average more than 90% of total fertilizer yearly consumed in the country and policy focus on fertilizer largely dealt with these fertilizers. Initially, these fertilizers were highly
subsidized. Due to budgetary constraints for subsidizing the input and as an inefficient measure, the donor agencies advised to gradually reduce subsidy on inputs and to encourage privatization of the input markets in Bangladesh. As a result, a series of privatization and deregulation policies were implemented in the agricultural input market since 1978 known as structural adjustment policies (SAP) and ended in the year 1992. However, several past studies dealt with the total fertilizer consumption and found fertilizer market reform productive for agriculture of Bangladesh which might be illusive in the contest of major three fertilizers consumed in the country and the debate, on the break date for series of structural adjustment policies is far from settled. The principle policy measure proposed in the fertilizer market reform is output price support program instead of fertilizer price subsidy. However the effectiveness of this policy is not settled down. After the market liberalization in Bangladesh, urea use has increased dramatically and on the other hand, the use of TSP and MP has reduced drastically. As a result, decreasing demand for TSP and MP has become a topical issue and get momentum in Bangladesh.
With the above background, this study has been mainly designed to investigate the
probable break date of inorganic fertilizers due to the impact of SAP and its impact on the
fertilizers market; dynamic aspect of inorganic fertilizers at the national level and effectiveness of output price support program on...
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