Ready to meet full fertiliser demand in Rabi season: Minister Gowda

“There is sufficient field stock of fertilizers available in all the States, which is adequate to address any emergent issue,” said the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, D V Sadananda Gowda.  

In an official statement, he said, “The country needs around 156 lakh tonnes (lt) of urea during the ongoing rabi season of which 129 lakh tonne will be met through domestic production and the rest is being imported. 

He also said, “Peak consumption months for fertilizers are December and January. Similarly, an adequate quantity of phosphatic and potassic fertilizers are being made available through domestic production as well as imports.” 

According to Gowda, the government is prepared to fulfill the complete fertilizer demand of farmers during the ongoing rabi season. Last Kharif season, the railways cooperated to a considerable extent. We have got 250 more rakes to supply. There is no dearth in the supply of fertilizers. We will try to supply to states nearly 50 % of the stock in advance so that there is no problem for farmers. 

As far as rabi season is concerned, the minister said, the requirement of urea is estimated at 155.84 lakh tonne. The entire quantity required for the current rabi season, especially during peak consumption months of December 2018 and January 2019, is expected to be met by domestic production of about 129 LMT and the remaining through imports. 

“We have planned how much area we have to import to match the requirement here with indigenous production in our country. We have already planned to import 25 lakh metric tonnes,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the ministry said in a statement the production of P&K (phosphatic and potassic) fertilizers is also going on in the country and importers are importing P&K under the open general license (OGL) to fulfil the field requirement. 

In a weekly video conference, jointly organized by Department Of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, DoF and Railways on 4 December 2018, all the states have reported adequate availability of all fertilizers, the Minister said.