Blame game over shortage of urea, Odisha claims poor supply

Sahoo further claimed that the State received 34,150 tonne of urea till August 17 against requirement of one lakh tonne for the month of August.
Image for representational purpose. (File| EPS)
Image for representational purpose. (File| EPS)

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government blamed the Centre for the acute shortage of chemical fertilisers especially urea, a review by the Ministry of Fertilisers stated that Odisha has received 2.74 lakh tonne more against its actual requirement.

Fertiliser companies have supplied over 10.31 lakh tonne of chemical compounds as on September 9, 2020 as against its requirement of 7.56 lakh tonne. Prepositioning of fertilisers for the kharif season started from April 1 this year.

While farmers across the State have been complaining about shortage of urea leading to black-marketing of the soil nutrient, the Ministry has supplied 81,282 tonne more than the requirement.

The State Government had indented for 3.3 lakh tonne of urea for kharif crops this year and received 4.11 lakh tonne. The September availability of urea in the State is 1.21 lakh tonne while its actual requirement is 1 lakh tonne.

Taking up the issue with Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviaya in August, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Arun Sahoo said urea supply by different fertiliser manufacturing companies to Odisha since June is less than that of its demand.

He said Odisha received only 56,228-tonne urea in June as against its quota of 70,000 tonne while the shortfall in supply of chemical nutrient was 19,619 tonne.

But, the State had a stock of 2.18 lakh tonne of urea in June as against its requirement of 70,000 tonne and the July stock was 2.37 lakh tonne while the requirement for the month was 80,000 tonne, sources present in the review meeting said.

Sahoo further claimed that the State received 34,150 tonne of urea till August 17 against requirement of one lakh tonne for the month of August.

Black-marketing of urea was rampant in August despite the availability of 2.08 lakh tonne of the fertiliser in the State.

“The urea availability in Odisha is more than its requirement since April and there is nothing to blame to the Centre. An artificial scarcity was created by private traders and the primary agriculture cooperative societies selling fertilisers on behalf of MARKFED joined them by hoarding their stocks,” the sources maintained.

The stock position of different varieties of fertilisers including diammonium phosphate (DAP) and NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and muriate of potash (MOP) has been very comfortable and this was known after verification of stocks with wholesalers and dealers points.

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