oh dear! fertilizer shortages again

Farmers facing scarcity of fertilizers
Bipin Chand Agarwal, TNN
Aug 2, 2012, 12.51AM IST

BAHRAICH: The farmers, already worried with the crisis of electricity and monsoon, are now facing the scarcity of fertilizers. The black-marketing of fertilizer continues due to no proper arrangement of distribution. The farmers are now up for agitation due to the unavailability of fertilizer at the government cooperative committees. Due to the drought-like situation, the sowing of Kharif crops has also been minimal, while sowing the paddy has been about 60% only. The sowing of corn, maize and pulses has also been extremely low.

The farmers are now wandering in search of fertilizers in spite of low production of crops. The reason is no proper arrangement of distribution and no control on smuggling of fertilizer in the Indo-Nepal border areas. Moreover, out of the total allotted urea of seven lakh metric ton, 1.99 lakh metric ton have been distributed which has also created the crisis. The demand of urea is about 3.30 lakh metric ton in the month of July. The co-operative committees are also adamant on purchasing urea on the old rates. Only 6.67 metric tons of stock of fertilizer is available at the old rates while the new rates have gone up to Rs three to 300 per bag. The farmers alleged that they are not able to get the fertilizer at the old rates from the cooperative committees. and giving the excuse of stocks sold to the farmers.

While the commissioner for agriculture wrote a letter to all the district magistrates (DMs) and divisional commissioners to ensure the proper availability and distribution of the fertilizer. He also ordered to take action against those charging more than the price printed on the bag. Two call centers set up for the complaints of the farmers are also not working in which the phone no of PCF call center is 1800-180-1551 and the phone no of kisan call center is 1800-180-1551 are not operational.

There is no proper arrangement of fertilizer distribution in the district and the black-marketing of fertilizer is going on.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Farmers-facing-scarcity-of-fertilizers/articleshow/15319670.cms