ISLAMABAD            -          A high level meeting has agreed that subsidy should only be provided on phosphate and potassium products, and not on urea, to promote use of balanced nutrients for greater yield improvement in crops. It was also agreed that subsidy will be provided directly to the farmers via sticker-based mechanism and no other option of price reduction will be considered.  A meeting on fertilizer subsidy implementation was held in Islamabad, chaired Ministry of National Food Security & Research secretary along with senior representatives of the Ministry. The meeting was also attended by representatives from provincial governments, fertilizer industry and key dealers.

It was also decided the all provinces will follow Punjab phosphoric sticker-based subsidy model, which has proved to be very successful. While this subsidy scheme will be immediately implemented in Punjab, it will only become effective in other provinces ones the right infrastructure for execution is in place. The meeting participants also held an in-depth discussion if the whole subsidy scheme should be implemented in Rabbi Season as more than two months have already passed in the current Kharif season.