The Centre on Monday stressed that availability of fertilizers during the current Kharif (summer-sown) season is more than the estimated demand, adding that its subsidy for this fiscal might increase to around Rs 2.5 lakh crore to ensure that farmers get crop nutrients at highly subsidised rates.
The Centre further said it will take strict action against hoarding of crop nutrients and asked states to monitor fertilizer movement. It also told states to provide accurate information to farmers for ensuring there is no panic buying.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya jointly chaired a virtual review meeting on the situation of fertilizers with the agriculture ministers of states/UTs, according to an official statement.
Mandaviya said, "With the government's proactive steps in pre-positioning urea, DAP and NPK and other fertilizers supply, currently, we have more stock for supply of fertilizers for this kharif season than the demand." He also advised states to keep providing farmers with adequate and accurate information regarding availability and not create either a panic situation or misinformation related to fertilizer stocks.
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Despite the pandemic and rise in prices of raw materials at the international level, Mandaviya said the Centre has managed to keep fertilizer prices affordable by increasing subsidies so that farmers do not suffer. "This year, around Rs 2.5 lakh crore subsidy will be given to farmers. We should make plans so that the fertilizers are utilized at a balanced level at ground level," Mandaviya said.
The total fertilizer subsidy stood at around Rs 1.62 lakh crore last fiscal. Recently, the Union Cabinet approved Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers for Kharif Season-2022 (from April 1 to September 30). The subsidy approved by the Cabinet for the NBS Kharif-2022 was Rs 60,939.23 crore.
The minister urged states to take note of how much fertilizers are available and needed at each district level, and keep an eye on how much stock each farmer has bought in order to avoid malpractices like black-marketing. Stressing on the need to tackle malpractices like hoarding, black-marketing or diversion of fertilizers, Mandaviya said the government will take strict action in case of such scenarios.
He also urged states to make farmers aware of recent trends in the fertilizers market and alternate fertilizers and agriculture practices like use of nano urea and organic farming. Mandaviya said the increase in the international prices of DAP and its raw materials have been primarily absorbed by the Union government. The Centre has decided to provide a subsidy of Rs 2,501 per bag on DAP instead of the existing subsidy of Rs 1,650 per bag, which is a 50 per cent increase over the last year's subsidy rates.
The Union minister also advised states to undertake micro-planning of fertilizer movement within the states strictly as per the requirement and do timely unloading of rakes for better utilisation of the rolling stock. Tomar stated that agriculture is a vital sector providing employment to a large population.
"We are committed to provide support for agriculture, which is a priority sector for us. Be it investment, Kisan Credit Card, insurance schemes, crop diversification, horticulture, we have always worked to strengthen this sector. In agricultural production, we are always leading and are a global leader," he said.
"Fertilizer is an important component of agriculture production and our objective is to reduce import dependency on various fertilizers. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, we are committed to ensuring availability of affordable fertilizers to our farmers," Tomar said.
The Centre is making available fertilizers, namely urea and 25 grades of P&K fertilizers to farmers, at subsidized prices through manufacturers/ importers. The subsidy on P&K fertilizers is being governed by the NBS Scheme with effect from April 2010.
