BENGALURU: On a day when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertiliser JP Nadda citing a shortage of urea in Karnataka, state Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy claimed that there was no shortage of fertilisers in the state. He urged farmers not to worry, as they have a sufficient stock of fertilisers. “If a district faces shortage of fertilisers, we will source it from districts where the utilisation is less,” he said.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, the minister said that his department has already issued directives to officials concerned to monitor the situation and ensure that no farmer is left in the lurch. He said that this year, the southwest monsoon commenced early, and also the sowing of maize has expanded to 2 lakh hectares, which has led to high demand for urea. Some farmers purchased huge quantities of fertilisers for August and September now itself, which has also led to the high demand, he said. Till July, the Union Government supplied 5.34 lakh tonnes of fertilisers, of which 4.30 lakh MT has been distributed. While from April to July, there was a demand of 6.8 lakh MT of urea from the state, the Centre supplied 6.82 lakh MT, and the state in turn supplied 5.26 lakh MT of urea to farmers.
Cheluvarayaswamy said that the state is in touch with the Union government authorities. “There is no issue with fertiliser supply, and in order to resolve any issue that crops up, we have constituted official teams,” he said.
He, however, urged farmers to use nano urea, as experts and professors from various agriculture universities and colleges say it works effectively. “This will also save money,” he said, urging farmers to opt for organic farming as fertilisers damage soil health.