Agri Minister promises Urea at Rs 267
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 10 2022: Agriculture Minister Tho-ngam Biswajit has assured that Urea would be made available to farmers of the State at the Government rate of Rs 267 per bag and there would be no shortage of the fertilizer.

The Agriculture Minister was speaking at the launching of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for 7000 farmers of the State who have been enlisted under phase III of the Mission Organic Value Chain Development of North East Region (MOVCDNER) 2020-23 at his New Secretariat office today.

Biswajit appealed to all farmers to inform the Government or the Directorate of Agriculture if they find anyone selling Urea in black market instead of buying fertilizers from black markets at inflated prices.

Agri Minister promises Urea at Rs 267

Farmers are given fertilizers based on their requirements.

No farmer is given excess fertilizer because the department does not have fertilizers in abundance, Biswajit said.

Yet, there is nothing to worry about for the department has Urea in terms of lakhs of bags and the process of shipping is going on, he said.

Transportation of Urea was suspended for sometime on account of break down in railway line at Namrup and sinking of a bridge along Imphal-Jiribam highway.

Nonetheless, lifting orders have been issued for transportation of Urea along Imphal-Dimapur highway even though it would entail higher transportation cost, he said.

Biswajit assured that befitting action would be taken up if any official or staff is found involved in selling fertilizers in black market.

Carrying written documents, a large number of farmers came to buy/collect fertilizers but during field inspection, very few of them were found to be genuine cultivators, he said.

"Such fraudulent practices would not be tolerated any more.

I would go to fields and fertilizers would be distributed at paddy fields", the Agriculture Minister said.

"I never wrote any letter asking officials to give fertilizers to any particular individual", he clarified.

"Many applications were received from different farmers' groups seeking fertilizers but I only recommended the necessary quantities of fertilizers after verifying all the applications", Biswajit said.

He said that he would not support any farmers' group but act as per rules.

Some years back, there was no DBT system for schemes like MOVCDNER.

However, after many sections of people raised questions whether benefits of such schemes actually reached the beneficiaries or not, DBT was introduced as a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative towards good governance, Biswajit said.

He then appealed to all beneficiaries of MOVCDNER to use the monetary assistance given to them productively after identifying on-farm and off-farm requirements.

He urged all farmers to focus more on producing organic crops and vegetables as they do little harm to health.

The Prime Minister has been supporting the farmers of the country by issuing Soil Health cards, Fasal Bima Yojana cards etc, he continued.

In addition to Rs 6000 given to farmers every year under Kishan Samman Nidhi Yojana, farmers of the State would now get Rs 2000 each from the State Government which means they would get Rs 8000 each in a year.

The matter would be tabled before the State Cabinet soon, the Agriculture Minister said.

Agriculture Commissioner M Joy, Agriculture Director N Gojendro and other officials were also present at the function.