India intensifies to find more fertilizer

With a fertilizer shortage in certain growing areas, India’s Centre for Agriculture will hold daily video-conferencing with state agriculture departments to ensure adequate supply in the upcoming sowing season.

"The idea is to keep a close watch on fertilizer availability in major Rabi-crop growing states," a senior government official said. The Cabinet Secretary is also to monitor the situation through regular interactions with Union secretaries of Agriculture and Fertilizers, he added.?

The Centre has already assured fertilizer would be available, but its proper distribution is an issue, so that the nutrients reach farmers and there is no artificial shortage because of hoarding and smuggling. Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan pointed out complaints of fertilizers from India being smuggled to neighboring countries, and asked states to act tough against hoarders and smugglers. The minister also said he had asked Fertilizer Secretary Atul Chaturvedi to gather reports on neighboring countries’ import trends to determine whether nutrients are going out of India.

The consumption of urea during 2007/08 was about 26.2 million tonnes. Government has fixed the target for supply at about 28.8 million tonnes of urea this year of which 15.8 million tonnes have already been supplied by the end of October. A target of ensuring availability of 11.1 million tonnes of DAP has been fixed for the current year, compared with nearly 7.6 million tonnes last year. About 6.8 million tonnes of DAP have been supplied up through last month.