The politics of fertilizer
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 30, 2013 -

The demand of the farmers from all the nine districts of the State for providing fertilizers has once again raised the question of how serious is the Government of Manipur towards the plight of the farmers, who are the backbone of the State's economy.

Submitting a lengthy memorandum, the farmers have drawn the attention not only of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and DoNER Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar but also of the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Agriculture Minister of the State for taking up immediate measures for making fertilizers available sufficiently and at the promised subsidized rate of Rs 260 per bag.

As we have pointed out through this column earlier, agriculture is not just the main occupation of the people in Manipur but also the largest productive unit of the State's economy, contributing a major share of the total domestic products of the State and providing employment to more than half of its total work force.

But the problem of shortage of fertilizers has remained one recurring problem that the farming community in Manipur has to endure during the time of cultivation season every year.

When they should be working in their fields, the farmers are made to do a round of the market just to get a bag or two of fertilizer for applying in their field. This is a sad reality.

Shortage of fertilizers during cultivation season, when there is, of course, steep rise in the demand, is not a recurring problem peculiar to Manipur alone.

Farmers in all over the country feel the heat of shortage of fertilizers every year. But there is a distinct difference between the problem being faced by the farmers in Manipur and in other parts of the country.

While in other States, the problem stems mainly from shortage of warehousing facility, logistic constraints, distribution breakdown, etc, but in Manipur, in addition to all these problems and the inability of the State machinery to procure the allotted State quota of fertilizer in time, it is the dirty politics that the Ministers and MLAs play in distribution of fertilizers to the farmers, which has been at the root cause of recurring fertilizer crisis in the State.

Even as allotment of fertilizer quotas to the MLAs/Ministers for distribution among the farmers of their respective constituencies has not been of any help towards guaranteeing equal and fair distribution of fertilizers among those who need them the most, this unique arrangement, which is perhaps not to be found anywhere else, has also given ample scope to the MLAs/Ministers to misuse it as a political tool to take revenge on who did not vote for them during election.

That is the precise reason, why the allocated fertilizer are made available only to those farmers who are close to the Ministers and the MLAs and those who supposedly did not support them are being deprived and the usurped shares of the farmers inevitably land up in the black market where fertilizers is available in plenty, provided one can pay the price.

This is also a sad reality behind the drama of shortage of fertilizer in the State.