SALMAN ABDUHOO LAHORE - The first-ever bio-fertilizer plant in the country with capacity of producing over 5,000 bags daily is being opened in City on Saturday (today), it was learnt. Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal will inaugurate the plant, which is equipped with the latest technology of 21st century, agricultural experts said and added that though this technology is available in advanced countries including China and India yet this plant is of its first kind being set up in Pakistan. Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Chairman Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema while talking to The Nation said that bio-fertilizer will enhance the efficiency of DAP and other fertilizers, as most of their quantity is wasted in the fields. He said that DAP or phosphorus usage efficiency is 15 to 20 percent. In the same way urea or nitrogen effectiveness is up to 40 percent, he said and added that use of bio-fertilizer will make the fertilizers more efficient, besides increasing the production up to 70 percent. He revealed that when a farmer uses DAP, 80 percent quantity is wasted in the soil. The usage of bio-fertilizer will enable this 80 percent wasted DAP to work, he stated. Jamshaid Cheema told The Nation that the Auriga Group has itself made the design of the plant, as it had been working on the project for the last 5 years. He said that first year target of bio-fertilizer production is around 1 million bag which will fulfil the requirement of 1 million acres of fields in the country. He expressed his hope the company will be able to export its production within five years period. It is to be noted that in a shameless move to fleece farmers, the urea fertiliser manufacturers increased the price of 50kg bag by a whopping Rs190, pushing it from Rs850 to Rs1,040 in one go defying fertiliser price control committee, which is mandated to pre-empt cartelisation by manufacturers. In the same way last month, when DAP was needed for wheat sowing, its price was increased by Rs1,500 per bag. The move will cost the farmers an additional Rs22.80 billion on the urea head alone every year as they use around 120 million bags in one year. To put the urea price in regional context, India provides it to its farmers at mere Rs434 per bag. By those calculations, the Pakistani farmers are paying Rs72 billion extra to urea manufacturers, a crippling blow to local agriculture. The federal government provides Rs70 billion subsidy to the manufacturers on the gas head alone, experts said. Out of these Rs70 billion, the manufacturers are returning only Rs19 billion to farmers, they added. They said that imported urea cost Rs1,200 per bag at the current international price. The flood-hit farmers, who were already struggling to get back on their feet, could hardly afford such a severe blow to their livelihood and farming, they said.