Telangana Agriculture Department Launches Mobile App for Fertilizer Booking, Faces Criticism

The Telangana Agriculture Department has introduced a mobile phone app-based system that allows farmers to book fertilizer online, aiming to streamline distribution and prevent shortages witnessed during the recent Kharif season.

The Fertilizer Booking App, developed for Android phones, was piloted in select districts and has crossed over one lakh downloads within two days. According to officials, nearly 20,000 farmers have booked more than 60,000 bags of urea through the app so far.

Telangana Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao said the Fertilizer Booking App has shown encouraging results during its pilot rollout across five districts. He said farmers can freely purchase the required quantities of fertilizer through the app, and a statewide rollout is planned soon. The minister dismissed the opposition’s criticism as misleading and unnecessary.

For the ongoing Rabi season, the state has already received 5.30 lakh metric tonnes of urea, and the government is taking advance steps to ensure adequate availability during peak demand months.

According to the department, the digital platform is designed to ensure transparent and timely delivery, reduce long queues at fertilizer outlets, and curb panic buying by allowing farmers to reserve urea bags for up to 24 hours. The system is linked with land records and requires farmers’ details and crop plans to calculate eligibility and allocation. Officials said tenant farmers can also book urea using Aadhaar authentication along with landowner validation.

However, the app-based fertilizer distribution system has drawn criticism from opposition parties and some farmer groups. Critics argue that not all farmers own smartphones, which could create barriers for small and marginal cultivators. Concerns have also been raised over data privacy, forced digitalisation, and whether rural internet connectivity is robust enough to support the system’s smooth functioning.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao lashed out at the Congress government’s newly launched ‘Urea App’, branding it a symbol of administrative incompetence and an anti-farmer policy. Rao accused the ruling party of weakening the agriculture sector, disrupting electricity supply to farms, and sidelining key welfare schemes such as Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima. He said the app reflected the government’s failure to understand ground realities and warned that forced digitalisation would further alienate farmers rather than support them.

Defending the initiative, the agriculture minister said initial technical issues were promptly addressed and the system is now functioning smoothly. He said the app helps address supply bottlenecks and will be rolled out across the state after refinements based on feedback from the pilot phase.