Urea shortage: Supplies in Jun-July exceeded states' requirement, sales

Despite images of farmers standing in line for urea, data shows that supplies to most states were more than both their requests and sales; shortages grew out of sudden demand due to increase in sowing

A few days ago, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and a key NDA ally, N Chandrababu Naidu, urged the Central government to help the state in meeting its urea needs.

 

He is not alone. Over the past few months - throughout the kharif sowing season, in fact - several of his fellow chief ministers, including Revanth Reddy of Telangana and Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, have been raising the issue of acute shortage of urea and other major fertilisers. Urea is primarily consumed during the kharif season to supplement the nitrogen requirement in soil for paddy and maize crops.

 

Long queues of