New digital fertiliser system draws Opposition's flak in Rajasthan

The Rajasthan government has extended digital sale of fertilisers to 11 more districts, an agriculture department official said. As the ruling party lauds its online fertiliser sales, the Opposition condemns the move, flagging issues farmers in the state face while accessing the online facility.  

 

Meanwhile, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said the BJP government's new online booking system has become a source of harassment for farmers rather than a means to provide fertiliser.

 

“There are technical glitches, server outages, and hours-long queues — only for farmers to eventually return empty-handed. The BJP government's 'double-engine' has failed to deliver fertiliser to the farmers. Farmers across the entire state are suffering due to this mismanagement. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma must answer: how long will farmers continue to face such hardship?”, Gehlot said in a social media post. 

  

Prior to this, the official added, the digital system had already been successfully implemented in seven districts across two phases. “This is a significant step by the agriculture department towards ensuring that farmers in the state receive subsidised fertiliser on time, at prescribed rates and in a transparent manner,” the official said.

 

Starting August 27, the DBT-POS (Direct Benefit Transfer-Point of Sale) application will be implemented in 11 additional districts of the state — Baran, Dausa, Hanumangarh, Dungarpur, Jalore, Jhalawar, Karauli, Kota, Pratapgarh, Sawai Madhopur, and Tonk.

 

Agriculture Commissioner Naresh Kumar Goyal stated that the results of the first two phases have been encouraging and positive. So far, more than 100,000 farmers have booked approximately 15,000 mt of urea through this system. Farmers described the digital booking process as simple, convenient, and useful, he said.

 

Goyal noted that the government provides urea to farmers at a fixed rate of Rs 267 per bag, while bearing a subsidy of approximately Rs 1,600 on each bag. Since the price of industrial-grade urea exceeds Rs 2,500, there remains a risk of black-marketing and unauthorised use of subsidised urea.