BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday requested the Centre to ensure provision of fertilisers to the state as per the monthly agreed supply plan including the backlog of previous months for smooth distribution among the farmers.
“Farmers in the state have suffered severe crop loss due to the recent cyclone YAAS and several cyclonic storms in the previous years. Therefore to optimise their production supply of the most critical input, fertiliser should be as per requirement ” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in a letter to Union Minister
for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya.
The Chief Minister said that as mid-July to September is the peak consumption period of urea in the state and July to August is peak period of demand for all other fertilisers, short supply of these items at this juncture will adversely affect the agricultural production and unnecessarily invite law and order situation in most of the districts.
Thanking the Centre for allocation of fertilisers in the monthly movement supply plans, the Chief Minister said that during current May, June and July, there has been severe short supply. He said that during the current Kharif till date, the state has received only 1.45 lakh tonne of urea against the allocation of 2.31 lakh tonne and agreed supply plan of 2.1 lakh tonne.
Similarly, during the period the state has received 97,763 tonne of DAP against the allocation of 1.52 lakh tonne and agreed supply plan of 1.45 lakh tonne. Besides, 42867 tonne of MOP and 1.05 tonne of NPKS have been supplied against the allocation of 67,200 tonne and 1.68 lakh tonne and agreed supply plan of
60,000 tonne and 1.42 lakh tonne respectively.
The Chief Minister said that the supply of urea has been 62 percent against the allocation and 69 percent of the agreed supply plan and sought the intervention of the Union Minister to ensure provision of fertilisers to the state as per the agreed supply plan in the interest of farmers.