State seeks additional supply of urea coming in 4 ships by month-end to overcome 2.69L tonnes short supply

Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao has alleged that the Centre has badly failed in supplying the allotted urea to Telangana for the April-August period this year resulting in scarcity of the fertilizer in demand.

At a meeting with the officials of the Agriculture department held here on Sunday, he suggested that the farming community not to purchase more urea than the required quantity to overcome the crisis at the earliest and demanded that the Centre supply at least 80,000 tonnes of additional urea from the stock being imported through four ships and reaching the country by the month-end.

Director of Agriculture B. Gopi informed the meeting that the Centre had allotted five varieties of fertilizer to the State for this kharif season, including 9.8 lakh tonnes of urea and another 13.95 lakh tonnes of DAP, complex, MoP and SSP.

The Minister stated that of the 8.3 lakh tonnes urea allotment for the April-August period, the Centre had so far supplied 5.32 lakh tonnes, leaving a shortfall of 2.69 lakh tonnes. He explained that the allotment was 4.34 lakh tonnes of urea produced within the country and 3.96 lakh tonnes of imported urea. Of the allotment, only 3.27 lakh tonnes of indigenous urea and 2.05 lakh tonnes of imported urea was supplied to the State.

Of the indigenous urea, the lion’s share was to be supplied from RFCL Ramagundam, but there was no production in the plant for 78 days out of 145 days from April to August, leading to a shortage of urea in the State. Of the imported urea, some companies had not supplied any amount of the fertilizer for at least for two-three months.

Without knowing such facts, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders of the State were speaking nonsense and trying to mislead the farming community. The matter was apprised to the Centre and the Union Minister concerned through letters several times and had also met them personally along with the officials, but in vain. Apart from Telangana, States such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and others were also facing urea scarcity reflecting Centre’s failure to supply.