Amid farm stir, Centre ramping up fertilizer supply to UP

Lucknow

Amid the farm stir and Rabi sowing season, the Centre is ramping up fertilizer supply to Uttar Pradesh (UP) to keep the farmers in good humour in the crucial election year.

The state is slated to witness assembly polls in early 2022 amid the stir by the farmers, especially in Western UP, against the three central farm laws.

According to UP agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi, the central government has assured the state of supplying 300,000 tonnes of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 50,000 tonnes of Nitrogen Phosphorus Potash (NPK) by November 10.

“There is no shortage of fertilizer and other soil nutrients in the state,” Shahi said here recently, adding that the nodal officers had been instructed to ensure adequate availability of the commodity across all the 75 districts.

He claimed UP had robust inventories of urea, DAP, NPK and potash to cater to the projected demand of the farmers. The minister presided over a review meeting, wherein he directed officials to coordinate with the fertilizer companies so that the allocated stock was offloaded in the state timely.

The state government is also stepping up vigil in the UP districts bordering Nepal to pre-empt plausible smuggling of urea and other fertilizers across the international borders, which could then create scarcity of fertilizers in UP and jack up prices.

Meanwhile, Shahi ordered officials to keep a close watch on such places as are prone to black marketing, hoarding and inflated prices with regard to fertilizers.

He informed a total of 19 fertiliser rakes would arrive in UP within a week even as he asserted that the UP government was committed to providing adequate soil nutrients to the farm sector. The opposition parties, especially the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, have been attacking the Yogi Adityanath dispensation over the alleged shortage of fertilizers in the state.

For the current Rabi sowing season, UP has the ready availability of about 527,000 tonnes of phosphatic fertilizers, including 336,000 tonnes of DAP and 191,000 tonnes of NPK, Shahi said.

Earlier, ahead of the 2021 Kharif season, the UP government had urged the Centre for a higher quota of imported urea for the farmers. Although the domestic urea requirement is largely met with indigenous production, yet other soil nutrients, mainly phosphatic fertilisers, are still imported from other countries, including China.

The major Indian fertilizer companies include Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd (KRIBHCO), Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF), Coromandel, Kanpur Fertilizers and Chemicals, Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd (GSFC), Indo Gulf Fertilisers etc.