Government fails to manage fertiliser in plantation season

Government fails to manage fertiliser in plantation season

By Our Reporter

The government in its policy document has said that the farmers would be supplied seeds and fertilizers to the farmers in time. But the reality has been otherwise.

Now paddy plantation season has begun but the farmers across the country are facing an acute shortage of chemical fertilisers.

Ministry of Agricultural and Livestock Development has also admitted this. It said the fertilisers imported from abroad are stranded at Kolkata and Kandla port due to COVID-19 and lockdown.

“About 71,500 tonnes of fertiliser imported targeting this paddy and maize season has been stranded at Kolkata and Kandla Port for the last one and a half months resulting in the shortage of fertiliser,” said the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

It said around 50,000 tonnes DAP imported by Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL) has been stranded at Kolkata Port while around 21,500 tonnes urea imported by Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has been stranded at the Kandla Port.

According to the ministry, around 121,000 tonnes of fertiliser was in transit due to the lockdown while the government had set a target to sell 450,000 tonnes of fertilisers to the farmers in subsidised rate for the current fiscal year.

While the farmers across the country are facing shortage of fertilizers, cooperatives and traders in Rautahat have reportedly resorted to black-marketing to make fast buck.

The cooperatives which received the fertilizers from Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL) were found selling them to traders instead to the farmers and the traders were selling fesrtlisers at a higher price than the market price.

(People’s Review Print Edition)