BENGALURU: Even as the Opposition BJP is going all guns blazing against the State Government over the fertiliser issue, the Karnataka Agriculture Department has claimed that it wrote six letters to the Department of Fertilisers since April requesting it to supply the required DAP and urea fertilisers as per the allocation.
The Agriculture Department said they had written the letters, and even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to the Union Government. Apart from this, even during the weekly video conference meeting, officials requested the authorities at the Centre to supply urea and other fertilisers, the department said.
The department further said that Karnataka received good rainfall in the early monsoon season, and sowing commenced earlier than usual.
“Also, the area under maize, which requires a high amount of fertilisers, has increased significantly by approximately 2 lakh hectares this time,” the department added.
Meanwhile, BJP leader and Chief Whip in the Council N Ravikumar said that during the earlier BJP government, Rs 1,000 crore would be reserved for fertilisers which was reduced to Rs 400 crore by the Siddaramaiah government. “Farmers from north and south Karnataka, who have sown ragi, jowar, maize, and green gram need fertilisers, but the government is unable to supply them,” he said.
Ravikumar further alleged that farmers are not being provided with quality fertilisers. “Private companies are providing poor quality seeds, which is not yielding good crops to farmers. This is causing distress to farmers,” he added.
“Considering the initial urea stock availability before the monsoon, the Centre distributed a lesser amount of urea. This is the main reason for the urea shortage in the state. Karnataka had appealed to the Centre for 12.95 lakh MT of urea, but they had approved the allocation of 11.17 lakh MT of urea. From April to July, there was a demand of 3.03 lakh MT of DAP, but they have supplied only 2.21 lakh MT,” a statement from the agriculture department said, adding that there was a demand of 6.8 lakh MT of urea, of which 5.35 lakh MT was supplied.
