Private dealers stand to lose tonnes of fertilizer
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 19 2012:
As the recent Cabinet decision to give additional subsidy on urea would not be extended to private dealers who procured and distributed urea in the first phase of the current Kharif season, some metric tonnes of urea already procured by these private dealers are unlikely to find any customer.
Talking to The Sangai Express, some private dealers said that they already shipped in around 9200 metric tonnes of urea for the current Kharif season.
This shipment catered to the farmer's need for fertilizer for the first phase of paddy cultivation process.
But the private dealers who made fertilizers available to farmers in time are not entitled to the subsidy announced by the Government recently.
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Saying that the exact requirement of fertilizers in Manipur for a Kharif season is 18,000 metric tonnes, the dealers reasoned that this quantity would not be required this time because several large tracts of paddy fields cannot be cultivated due to shortage of water.
On the other hand, the Government is preparing to ship in 10,000 metric tonnes of Urea after the Government sanctioned Rs 9.6 crores to Agriculture Department in the month of April last.
Combining the quantity of urea already procured by private dealers with the quantity which would be shipped in by Agriculture Department as buffer stock puts the total figure at 19,200 metric tonnes which is higher than the requirement of the State.
As the quantity of urea which would be procured by Agriculture Department would be given Government subsidy, farmers would naturally choose them over the urea procured by private dealers.
They appealed to the Government to check existing quantity of urea procured by private dealers and give uniform subsidy.
Even as Rs 9.6 crores was sanctioned in April for procurement of urea, very little of the consignment has been procured and Agriculture Department is still unable to provide even a single bag to farmers.
Meanwhile, AO Headquarters of Agriculture Department informed TSE that 3587 metric tonnes of urea have reached Imphal while another 1585 metric tonnes of urea on the way to Imphal from Jiribam.