Purchasing urea: How does uncertainty with the supply of fertilizer to our country affect farmers?

October 8 at Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri) announced the opening of the fourth international process for the purchase of 44 thousand tons of urea, after the first three did not take place.

However, when the final bidders were ready, the Accounts Chamber warned of irregularities in the documents submitted by the companies that took the first three positions in the tender: Prime Charters International LTD, Lusso Istanbul and Exper Ats Ihracat, respectively.

With that in mind, last Wednesday the head of Midagri, Jenny Ocampoin dialogue with RPP newsindicated that the supplier will be the company ranked fourth, directive, and that contracts for the award of contracts will be signed “within the next 48 hours”. However, to date, no new news about the process has been reported.

The situation only contributed to increasing the uncertainty and despair of farmers due to the inability to get urea on time. In addition, stops are already being announced in various regions of the country. How this recurring impossibility Midagri effectively guarantee the flow of fertilizer? In this note, we note that the problem has become much more difficult.

Laureano del Castillo: “Midagri was not ready to purchase the product”

Executive Director of the Peruvian Center for Social Research (CEPES) Laureano Castillosuccessive drops in the buying process show that ministry “was not ready” for the tender.

“Let’s get started: Midagri does not have as one of its permanent directions the acquisition of supplies, so it is understandable that it was difficult for him to start an activity for which he was not prepared, ”he said in RPP news.

In addition, he believed that the successive changes of senior officials in this sector contributed to the fall of three tenders previous.

“In these months there have been many personnel changes in Governmentnot only ministers, but also high-ranking officials. Trained people came, as well as others who did not know the industry. I think that the difficulties of the first processes were due to people who did not have experience and we know this from the reports Controllerthat there are signs of violations,” he said.

Lock believed that if Midagri had bidding issues, it is likely that he will also have issues distributing the product when it comes to having it available, which he says is a concern.

“Another issue is distribution. Let’s remember that if there are difficulties with the purchase of urea, then there will be difficulties with its distribution, because Midagri does not distribute; that is, he does not have channels, and when the urea arrives, he will test the capabilities of the ministry for a task that it has not performed before,” he explained.

Also director Mr. SEPES He pointed out that the consequences of the delay in the receipt of carbamide are already being felt in the national food market.

“I think we are already seeing the consequences with the rise in price of some products. Over the previous weeks, we have already seen how the price of potatoes has risen. In the coming months, this will continue to have an impact on staple foods such as rice, hard yellow corn, which is a staple for chickens, the main animal protein that we consume in the country,” he said.

On the other hand, he stressed that if carbamide arrives in December, it will not be on time, because the season when this product is most in demand in the fields will end in November.

“What is worrying about all this is that after 4 processes, urea, if lucky, will arrive almost in mid-December, when the minister herself a few days ago in the Agrarian Commission Congressshowed a graph showing that the highest demand for basic fertilizers and carbamide products falls on October and November,” he said.

Eduardo Contreras: “We are not worried about the lack of dialogue with Midagri, but that they do not solve anything”

Governor of the National Confederation of Water Users Councils of Peru (Conahup), Edward Contreraspointed out that Midagri had not considered any of its proposals to address the shortage of fertilizers, but instead had implemented “less effective” measures.

“All the offers that have been made Midagri they have not been rated or included. We have the Fertiabono issue, which we have already discussed several times, and we have warned (…) that if custom board standards are not used, there will be a shortage in its delivery, ”he said.

In addition, Contreras indicated that “within a few months” a modification of the emergency decree was proposed so that the purchase of urea “not only from international companies, but also the possibility of acquiring it on the national market remained open.” Also “economic subsidy with urea exchange via custom boards”. However, none of this was “appreciated” in the ministry.

“Until now, the government has implemented the least effective measures and created huge discomfort. In addition, they do not provide loans properly through the Agro Peru fund from Agrobanco,” he stressed. RPP news.

In this sense, contreras confirmed the openness to dialogue on the part of the leadership of the Minister Ocampobut nothing has been decided yet.

“The dialogue is open, the leadership of the current minister is open. The problem is that its officials talk a lot, but do nothing, and the little they do worries us,” he said.

Among those concerns, he said, is that a contract for the purchase of carbamide has not yet been signed with the company that won the tender.

“Monday 31st is the deadline for signing a contract for the purchase of carbamide. They said that the letter of guarantee is already there, that the contract will be signed in 48 hours, and that the company is already coming to Peru. I don’t see anything specific,” he said.

In this scenario, the manager Conahup it became known that various farmers’ unions from Puno, Cusco, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Ica, Huancavelica and Tacna declared a regional strike on 23 and 24 November next year.

“Discomfort is already widespread, there are even forceful measures that have already been announced spontaneously. For example, rice farmers in the north are very upset and desperate because of the increase in production costs and already know that urea will not come. for the campaign”, highlighted contreras.

Juan Arica: “Yields are down because we can’t pay the cost of fertilizer”

President of the Agricultural Coordinator Zarumilla – Tumbes, John Arica, declared the impossibility Midagri The timely purchase of the fertilizer forced national sellers of the product to raise prices, and farmers, unable to pay for the product, are looking for alternative fertilizer options.

“Aware of the decline in new purchases, farmers in some sectors are unable to change crops. In the Zarumilla Valley, we are going to stay with the same plantation and use organic fertilizers like goat guano, cow guano because the fertilizers are quite expensive and we cannot get them,” he said.

However, these organic fertilizers, as explained Aricait will take more time to have an impact on the crop, which affected the crop.

“These subscriptions are adequate, the problem is that it takes 8 months to a year to take effect, this is not a subscription that will work instantly. This takes a lot of time and in some cases you need to break it first. with banana leaves,” he explained.

As he noted, chemical fertilizers such as urea take “two weeks, one month at the most” to work. The lack of product, added to other problems such as the decrease in the flow of the Zarumilla River and the reduction in the harvest, has led to a scarcity of lemons.

“At this time, there is a shortage of lemons. For example, from one hectare, when there is enough lemon, up to 20 nets are removed every 15 days. When the harvest was low, we took 10 nets. per hectare. This is a big problem that we have,” he said in RPP news.

Given that situation, Arica He indicated that his union is considering joining the strike he is organizing. Conahup.

“I have always believed that unification is important in Tumbes. And unification allows us to jointly solve problems. The actions must be well coordinated, and Tumbes must come out as a unit, together, so that not only for the benefit of one. “The user panel must be well coordinated in order to clearly know what a combat platform is,” he stressed.