Subsidized fertilizer for farmers being smuggled to Myanmar in exchange for yaba and weapons

Staff Reporter

While the country’s marginal farmers are going door to door to fertilizer dealers, begging for a sack of fertilizer, government-subsidized fertilizer is crossing the border into Myanmar in the dark of night.

This cross-border trade involves a dangerous ‘barter system’ – urea and TSP fertilizers leave Bangladesh, and in exchange, deadly drugs like Yaba, Ice, and illegal firearms worth billions of taka enter the country.

This worrying picture has recently emerged in a report by an important government intelligence agency.

State subsidy resources are being smuggled from Teknaf and Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar to Naikyangchhari in Bandarban and through multiple border points in the country.

In Bangladesh, the government-set price for 1 bag of urea fertilizer is around 1,350 taka. However, when the same bag crosses the border and reaches Rakhine State in Myanmar, it is sold for around 8,000 taka! Capitalizing on this huge demand created by the civil war in Rakhine and the junta government’s supply cut, smuggling rings are blossoming overnight.

At the same time, various sources say that bombs are being made there using chemical fertilizers for use in war. Militants use various ingredients, including nitrates used in chemical fertilizers, as ingredients for making bombs. These ingredients are used in various types of dangerous bombs, including IEDs.

Traffickers have not created any new routes to collect fertilizer; they are using more than 15 long-used drug and human trafficking routes (such as Anjumanpara in Ukhia, Ulubania in Teknaf, Kanjarpara, Hnila, etc.).

This syndicate operates in three levels:

• First level: Collection and storage of fertilizer through unscrupulous dealers, fake agricultural card holders and local brokers.
• Second level: Border crossing through paid transport workers, boatmen and shepherds.
• Third level: Backroom financiers and masterminds, who are mainly involved in the old drug and arms trade.

According to government figures, more fertilizer has been allocated in Cox’s Bazar district this month than is required. However, local farmers complain that the fertilizer is being handed over to retailers and smugglers, depriving genuine farmers of their cards. As a result, there are incidents of anger and vandalism of warehouses at the country’s borders due to non-availability of fertilizer.

BGB and Coast Guard operations from June to mid-September this year have seized about 235,000 kg of fertilizer and arrested 117 people. Twelve cases have been filed and several dealers have been blacklisted.

However, most of the time, only hired laborers or fishermen are caught in law enforcement operations, while the ‘godfathers’ behind the scenes remain elusive.

The smuggling of government-subsidized fertilizer for farmers across the border and the entry of toxic drugs into the country in return is a serious threat to the country’s agricultural economy and public safety. In addition to strengthening border security, it is now the need of the hour to ensure digital monitoring of the fertilizer distribution process and identify the main culprits and give exemplary punishment.