BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State has a stock of over one lakh tonne of urea, artificial shortage of the chemical soil nutrient has not only jacked up the price to more than double the subsidised rate but also its non-availability has forced farmers to buy substandard fertiliser from open market.
The more popular urea is selling at Rs 420-500 per 50 kg bag against its actual price of Rs 268.23 fixed by the Centre.The State’s requirement of urea for the kharif season (from April to September) this year was 4 lakh tonne. With an opening balance of 79,309 tonne, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers had so far supplied 3,78,763 tonne. Of the total availability of 4,58,072 tonne, supply of the fertiliser to farmers through point of sale (PoS) was 3,50,872 till September 15. There is an unsold stock of 1,07,200 tonne in different parts of the State.
With monsoon gaining strength due to back-to-back low pressure systems and the actual rainfall across the State is more than normal, there is surge in demand for urea which comes cheaper.“We need urea but the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) and government appointed dealers are telling they have no stock. Since the demand for urea is high they have joined hands and selling it through private traders at higher price,” said Dilip Pradhan, a farmer of Bargarh district.
Similar is the urea crisis in many coastal districts including Cuttack, Puri and Ganjam.Expressing his anguish over black-marketing of urea, Samarendra Singh of Gop block of Puri district said the callousness of the government to farmers plight is pathetic.
The State had projected its kharif requirement of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) at two lakh tonne, complex fertiliser (NPKS) 2.25 tonne and Muriate of Potash (MOP) at one lakh tonne. The total availability of DAP was 1,49,582 tonne and the sale till September 15 was 1,18,291 tonne leaving of stock of 31,291 tonne.
Similarly, the State has a live stock of 70,119 tonne of NPKS, 33,000 tonne of MOP and 31,291 tonne of DAP after sale till mid September.There is no demand for these three fertilisers as transplanting of paddy crop is over and medium and late duration paddy crops are at tillering stage, said an agronomist of the Agriculture department.