Telangana: Supplies of fertilizers as per action plan, say officials

With the area under paddy projected to be little over 40 lakh acres in Telangana during the Yasangi season, Department of Agriculture has prepared an action plan for supply of 19.24 lakh metric tonnes of various fertiliser grades

Hyderabad: Even as there are reports of a shortage of fertilizers, especially urea, from farmers in different districts, officials have denied the same. With the area under paddy projected to be little over 40 lakh acres in the State during the Yasangi (Rabi) season, the Department of Agriculture has prepared an action plan for supply of 19.24 lakh metric tonnes of various fertiliser grades, they said.

Some nine lakh tonnes of fertilizer stocks were made available in all the districts as the Yasangi operations gained momentum under all the major projects that have announced the irrigation schedules for the season, officials claimed, stating that the fertilisers availability was 28 per cent more compared to Yasangi 2022-23, when it was 7.01 lakh metric tonnes.

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The TS Markfed, being the nodal agency, shoulders the responsibility for streamlining the supplies. Officials said the demand for urea would be more in the preparatory stage of the Rabi operations. The department managed to make available 3.57 lakh metric tonnes of urea during the preparatory months of the Rabi operations.

As part of the initiative to step up supplies, 4.68 lakh metric tonnes of urea was ready in the godowns in the State and it is nearly 31 per more than the urea stocks available around the same time last year. The State was maintaining adequate stocks of DAP and other grades of fertilisers for the season. The supply related issues being reported in different parts of the State had nothing to do with the demand and supply factors. Delay in the supply of stocks were more local in nature and the local officials were tasked with the monitoring responsibilities, officials said.

On the whole, the use of urea as well as other complex fertilisers was coming down in the State. The government was ensuring timely supplies of 25 grades of phosphatic and Potassic fertilisers to the farmers at subsidised prices. The Central government had already approved the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates of fertilisers for the Rabi Season 2023-24. The State had already initiated measures to ensure smooth availability of these fertilizers to the farmers at affordable prices, they added.