Urea shortage likely to end soon
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 18 2021:
Urea fertilizer shortage, which has aggrieved many farmers in the past few weeks, is likely to end in a few days time as a fresh dispatch of 5 train racks have reached Imphal and another is set to reach Jiribam shortly.
According to an official of the Agriculture Department, urea fertilizers in five and half racks of trains have reached Manipur of which five have been brought to Imphal and the remaining half is still at Jiribam.
Another rack carrying the same will be reaching Jiribam shortly and with the fresh and the upcoming batch of urea fertilizer the State requirement is likely to be met, the official said.
It may be noted that each rack can bring in 58 to 59 thousand bags of urea fertilizer.
The official maintained that the total cultivable area in the State as per the data available is 1.95 lakh hectares and urea fertilizer required for use in Kharif season is around 5,50,000 bags.
As the Central Government has allotted only 4,40,000 there is a deficit of 1,10,000 bags, the official said while exuding confidence that the newly arrived batch' and the remaining batch will be sufficient for use in the State.
The Department had earlier expected that the 4,40,000 bags of the fertilizer will be enough for the State since around 20,000 hectares out of the 1.95 hectares is under water-logged area but sadly the quantity failed to meet the requirement, the source contended.
Highlighting that per hectare requirement of urea fertilizer is nearly three bags, the official said that the fertilizer is made available to the farmers through District Agriculture Officers under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme.
The consumers/farmers procured the fertilizers at the assigned Point of Sale (PoS) where biometrics of farmers are required and thus Aadhar card is needed, the source said.
Land Patta is also essentially required as cultivation area determines the quantity of fertilizers to be distributed, it added.
The Government of India is committed to ensure farmers the fertilizer requirement through DBT and as such the first batch of one rack of urea fertilizer dispatched from Namrup factory has been successfully given to the farmers via PoS.
As per the rule, the successive batch has to be sent to the State only after the Government of India awards the subsidy amount of each previous batch to the factory.
As such the State finds it difficult to arrange a smooth supply of the fertilizer, the source said.
To alleviate the hardships of the farmers and make the fertilizer available to wherever it is required, the Department is set to allocate urea fertilizers through respective DCs, said the source who also maintained that allocation for Kakching, Thoubal, Imphal West and Bishnupur will be made first.
The new allocation is expected to meet all the requirements for this year's Kharif season, the source continued.