State farmers fume over lack of fertiliser
Source: Chronicle News Service
Kakching/Imphal, July 27 2021:
Despite assurance of the agriculture minister and the Agriculture Department the state is facing acute shortage of fertilisers, urea in particular which has made the farmers very agitated and worried.
In case of Thoubal and Kakching districts, the farmers are mulling to launch protest over non-availability of urea despite spending their money and time while facing the danger of Covid-19.The farmers got a rude shock on Tuesday when they went to District Agriculture Office, Thoubal for buying the urea and submission of documents to receive their tokens, but found the office gate locked with a notification stating that the office has stopped accepting application due to lack of stock.
On seeing the notice, a commotion broke out with many angry farmers stating that they had come to the office after they could not submit their documents on Monday even after standing in queue for hours and were told to come on Tuesday.
Later, the office accepted the documents stating that they will distribute tokens for next phase of distribution, but for now they do not have any stock.
Consequently, the farmers stood up in a long queue to collect the tokens for next phase of distribution of urea.
One of the farmers stated that that it takes at least three days for one to get one bag of urea, one day for submitting documents, another for receiving token and one more day for buying the urea.
At a time when they need to be in their fields, some farmers have been waiting in queue for seven days now.
On top of this, farmers from far flung areas have to spend money on transportation to reach the district headquarters where the urea is distributed.
In such a situation, lack of availability of urea is unacceptable.
What happened to the assurance given by the agriculture minister that there will be no shortage of urea when it is most required, he lamented.
It can be mentioned that for the first phase of distribution Thoubal and Kakching districts were allocated 10,000 bags of urea and the distribution started on July 8 with Thoubal getting 6000 and Kakching receiving 4000 bags of urea.
Shortages have arisen as 10,000 bags of urea are not enough for the districts which are state's major producers of agriculture produce.
Speaking to the media, district agriculture officer Thoubal /Kakching Naorem Joykumar informed that Thoubal and Kakching at the minimum require 64,950 urea bags.
For the first phase, out of the required 21,650 urea bags only 10,000 were allocated.
As such, he has asked the higher authorities of the Agriculture Department to provide the rest of 54,950 bags for the district at the earliest.
On the other hand, a team led by Kakching District United Clubs Organisation (KADUCO) general secretary M Manishwar Khuman held talks with Naorem Joykumar in regard to availability of urea.
M Manishwar further urged the chief minister, agriculture minister and department concerned to provide the required quantity of fertilisers.
Meanwhile, Ithai Farmer's Association has asked the department concerned to inform the farmers on when urea will be made available.
In a release, the Association stated that farmers are waiting in queue from 3-4 am to get urea with some even staying up all night to get ahead in the queue.
Many farmers are travelling 30 to 40 km to buy the urea.
At a time when there is no public transport service, they have to hire vehicles which cost them Rs 400-500 per bag.
But still they cannot buy the urea as per the amount and time they want, it added.
The Association continued that DAO Bishnupur began selling the urea from July 13 till July 16, after which it stopped due to exhaustion of stock.
On enquiry, it was told that the distribution will start again after the agriculture minister provides more bags of urea, but so far, the distribution has not begun.
Department concerned must notify the farmers on when will the distribution start again.
What has happened to the assurances given by the agriculture minister and the department that there will be no shortages of urea, why it has not been implement on ground, questioned the Association.
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