Regional farmers to benefit from PetroCaribe Agreement
By Joyette Mills-Ward
Business Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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Local Farmers
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CARIBBEAN and Latin American farmers within the PetroCaribe belt of operation are set to benefit from a 40 percent discount on urea. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez made the announcement this at the recently held Fifth PetroCaribe Summit.
Chavez apparently took on board the concerns of the Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines who said fertilizers “cost an average of 268 dollars a tonne in 2005, $405 in 2007, $875 in 2008 and is being quoted at $998 a tonne for 2009”.
“At those prices our farmers cannot produce, and if they do, the prices will be higher than for imported food... therefore increasing our dependency,” Gonsalves said.
Venezuela, which produces two million tonnes of urea a year, offered to sell
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Venezuela President, Hugo Chavez
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100,000 tonnes per year to its PetroCaribe partners at a 40 percent discount, half to be paid on receipt of the product and half when the crop is harvested.
Urea, a white crystalline solid containing 46% nitrogen, is widely used in the agricultural industry as an animal feed additive and fertilizer. In the past decade urea has surpassed and nearly replaced ammonium nitrate as a fertilizer.
Urea can be bulk-spread, either alone or blended with most other fertilizers, making it an excellent product for both livestock and food crop farmers.
Statistics coming from the St. Kitts Department of Agriculture through Ashton Stanley indicate that urea represented 18% of fertilizer sales in 2007 and the price for the commodity has increased by 38%.
Urea based fertilizers have many benefits for farmers including the fact that it can be applied to soil as a solid or solution or to certain crops as a foliar spray, usage involves little or no fire or explosion hazard, its high analysis, 46% Nitrogen (N), helps reduce handling, storage and transportation costs over other dry N forms, its manufacturing releases few pollutants to the environment and perhaps most importantly, when properly applied, results in crop yield increases equal to other forms of nitrogen. ~~Adz:Right~~
Agricultural stakeholders could not at the time put specific figures to the economic impact of the discount but opined that it would augur well for local farmers.
