Crackdown on fertilizer angers Pakistani farmers
Locals struggling with ban on products used by Taliban militants to make bombs
MIR ALI, PAKISTAN — Pakistan’s effort to cut off the flow of fertilizer to militants using it to make bombs in this key tribal sanctuary along the Afghan border has outraged local farmers, who complain the policy has cut their crop yields in half.
The blowback i n North Waziristan could prove costly as the army grapples with how to tackle enemies of the state holed up in the remote, mountainous area, a task that is likely to be more difficult if the government is unable to mobilize support from local tribesmen.
“It’s true that fertilizer is being used to make bombs, but the farmers are not the ones doing it, so why does the ban apply to us?” said Mohammad Daraz, a farmer in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.
Pakistan has struggled in recent years to avoid offending the population with heavyhanded tactics as it battles domestic Taliban militants throughout the northwest.
Pakistan first imposed a ban on certain types of fertilizer in North Waziristan and other parts of the semi-autonomous tribal region more than three years ago, officials and farmers said.
The government instituted the policy after determining that fertilizer had been used in most of the major bombings in Pakistan, especially those involving vehicles packed with explosives, said a senior government official who worked on the ban.
The ban was meant to apply only to urea and other fertilizers that contain ammonium nitrate because they can most easily be turned into explosives, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
But security forces have instead simply tried to prevent all fertilizer from getting into North Waziristan, said farmers and fertilizer dealers.
The problem has gotten worse for the thousands of farmers in North Waziris- tan with each passing year as authorities have increasingly attempted to cut down on fertilizer smuggled into the area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country.
When the government first imposed the ban, farmers were still able to buy smuggled fertilizer on the black market, although they had to pay higher prices, said Samandar Khan, a farmer in Mir Ali, another major town in North Waziristan.
The situation changed last year after security forces opened fire on a vehicle and wounded two people attempting to smuggle in fertilizer, said Rafique Ullah, a driver who has worked as a smuggler himself.
“Since then, the smugglers have almost completely stopped bringing in fertilizer,” Ullah said.
Hamidullah Khan, a farmer in Mir Ali, said there’s very little fertilizer now on the black market. What is available, he said, is far too expensive for farmers.
“We have heard that this fertilizer is used to make bombs, but we use them for our crops,” Khan said. “Those who use it for bombs can purchase it even at these high prices.”