Farmers face shortage of fertilizers
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, July 20 2013 :
Even if the monsoon brings some relief to the farmers, they are now facing shortage of fertilizers in the State, especially urea which is very much required in cultivation.
However, Director of State Agriculture Department Shamu Kabui said that the State has sufficient stock of urea and it is being provided to farmers at subsidized rate through local MLAs.
As per the new policy of the State Government, urea fertilizer is not available even at higher price in the black market.
None of the agricultural stores at Kongba, Lamlong, Chingmeirong and other places was found selling urea.
The farmers are having a tough time searching for urea stores.
Agriculture Director Shamu Kabui told Heuiyen Lanpao that Chief Minister Okram Ibobi and Agriculture Minister Abdul Nasir have taken a firm decision to make urea fertilizer available to farmers at subsidized rate.
A 50-kg bag of urea which normally costs above Rs.400 has been made available to farmers at only Rs.288.60, he said.
He further said that the State has about 1.95 lakh hectares of agricultural land out of which about 1.10 lakh hectares are in valley region.
The requirement of urea fertilizer for Kharif cultivation is about 14000 to 1500 metric tonnes.
More than 5000 metric tonnes of urea has been brought to the State so far.
The Department used to sell the fertilizer directly to farmers by issuing coupons, but some black-marketers took undue advantage of such system and began to sell urea at over Rs.500 per bag, Shamu contended.
The Agriculture Department would strive to ensure availability of urea to farmers even if there is growing apprehension about the shortage of essential commodities in the State due to landslide at Nagaland, the Director averred.