Naveen urges Centre to speed up urea supplies

Faced with an acute shortage of urea in the state, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written to the Union ministry of chemicals & fertilisers, calling for expediting supply of urea on a war footing by the fertiliser companies to meet the need of farmers.

“It is learnt that two vessels of urea of Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) and Coromandel International Ltd (CIL) have been berthed at Vizag and Kakinada ports respectively. I shall appreciate if 25,000 tonne and 20,000 tonne of urea are allocated in favour of IPL and CIL respectively for supply to the state by September 20, 2014. Further, all the companies may be directed to expedite their supplies on war footing to meet the needs of farmers,” Patnaik wrote to Ananth Kumar, minister for chemicals and fertilisers. Against the kharif allocation of 450,000 tonne, 309,278 tonne of urea has been despatched to Odisha so far. According to the chief minister’s letter, 414,291 tonne of urea was supplied to the state in the corresponding period of last year.

Amid severe urea shortfall, there is hue and cry from farmers all over the state. The manure shortage had cast fears of impacting crop production adversely.

Government data showed urea deficit in the state (as on September 9) stood at 54,472 tonne. Of the targeted supply of 75,390 tonne for this month, only 20918 tonne was despatched. All the fertiliser companies including CIL, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (Iffco), Nagarjuna Fertilisers Company Ltd (NFCL), Kribhco Shyam Fertilisers Ltd (KSFL) and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd (RCFL) had slipped on supply commitments. Apart from urea, the deficit situation was also observed in case of complex fertilisers, DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate) and MoP (Muriate of Phosphate). At a recent review meeting, Iffco and KFCL attributed the shortfall in supplies to non-arrival of vessels on time while NFCL cited that its manufacturing capacity is yet to be fully functional.