Odisha demands adequate amount of fertilizers during Kharif season

Bhubaneswar: For smooth supply of ferilisers to farmers during the ensuing Kharif season, the Odisha government has demanded the Centre to supply the entire allocated quantity of fertilizers to Odisha during the crop season.

State Agriculture Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo has written to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, DV Sadananda Gowda, in this regard.

The Department of Fertilizers has supplied adequate quantity of fertilizers to the State as per the allocation in the month of April-2021. However, in the months of May and June-2021, there is a short in supply of different fertilizers to the State against the monthly allocation, Sahoo said in his letter.

During May 2021, he said, only 34,340 matric tonne (MT) of Urea has been supplied to Odisha against the monthly allocation of 48,950 MT. Also during the current June, only 18,690 MT of Urea has been supplied against the monthly allocation of 70,830 MT as on 18.06.2021.

Similarly, during May and June-2021, only 37,519 MT of DAP, 8,803 MT of MOP and 46,902 MT of NPK has been supplied to the State against the allocation of 82,000 MT of DAP, 28,900 MT of MOP and 81,600 MT of NPK.

“During the last Kharif, the State had experienced scarcity of Urea due to short supply of 45,000 MT of Urea as a result there was a law and order situation in most of the district of the State. So the State has planned to preposition 2, 00,000 MT of Urea through the State Fertiliser Procurement Agencies by the end of June 2021,” he said.

Keeping last year’s experience in mind the Agriculture Minister urged Gowda to ensure supply of the entire allocated quantity of fertilizers including the shortfall of previous months in the current month of June and subsequent months.