KATHMANDU, Dec 18: The government has signed an agreement with Bangladesh to purchase 50,000 metric tons of urea fertilizer. An agreement between the government companies of the two countries was signed on Thursday at the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD).

Secretary at the MoALD Yogendra Kumar Karki said that an agreement was reached at the government level after Bangladesh agreed to provide urea fertilizer. "It will be burdensome and slow to bring fertilizer from other processes," Karki said. “We did G2G agreement with Bangladesh to bring fertilizer on the fast track basis.”

The agreement has been signed by Netra Bahadur Bhandari, Managing Director of Krishi Samagri Company and Mohammad Amin Ul Ahsan, Chairman of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation of Bangladesh. The ministry is going to import the fertilizer by signing an agreement between the companies of the two countries as it is cumbersome and time consuming to procure the fertilizer through the tender process. The G2G was signed as fertilizer on loan is more expensive for Nepal.

The ministry has stated that the process is transparent as there is an agreement between the government companies of the two countries. The game of commission is likely in procurement through tenders and agents. Officials say the issue of commission has come to an end due to a buy-sell agreement at the government level.

The ministry has stated that the purchase of fertilizer will be cheaper as there is an agreement between the government companies of the two countries in the G2G model. Under this process, the government company of Nepal pays the amount to the government company of Bangladesh. There is no agent in between. The price of fertilizer is also believed to be affordable as it is determined by the government body of Bangladesh. "We get fertilizer at the price set by the government," said Secretary Karki.

It has been agreed to import 50,000 metric tons of fertilizers in two ways; urea block and cargo. The fertilizer being imported to Nepal is produced by Bangladesh.

Earlier, the Prime Ministers of the two countries had a telephone conversation on the issue of bringing fertilizers on loan. Secretary Karki said that it was expensive to bring fertilizers on loan. The ministry has stated that it is a positive attempt for the future to bring fertilizers from countries other than India. 

Nepal has been procuring fertilizers on G2G level from India until now. “Once the process starts, fertilizer can be procured from Bangladesh through G2G in the coming days,” Karki told Republica, “This is an important achievement in the agriculture sector.” The ministry has taken the procurement process forward with the approval of the cabinet.

 
• fertilizer
 
• Nepal
 
• Bangladesh
 
• G2G_model