Scarcity of urea may hamper Kharif cultivation in Odisha

The farmers in Odisha are witnessing paucity of urea and this would lead to hamper the Kharif cultivation. The officials of the state's agriculture department assume that if the farmers weren't meet with their urea demand till the end of this month then the kharif cultivation would certainly be impeded.

According to the official report, the centre has consigned Odisha 4 lakh 50 thousand tonnes urea for the ongoing Kharif season. But the state has received only 2 lakh tonnes urea till now. From the rest consigned quota the state would receive only 17 thousands tonnes of urea from inside the country. 2600 tonnes urea reached the state on Monday.

Seventy one thousands tonnes of urea would come from Oman and Jordan. The state is yet to take delivery of this amount of urea. The agriculture officials expect that the ships boarded with that much of urea will arrive before the end of this month. If the ships fail to reach here before the end of this month then the Kharif cultivation will definitely be hampered.

Similarly, the state has got only 67 thousands tonnes DAP, a kind of fertiliser, though the Centre has approved one lakh fifty four thousand tonnes. The centre has consigned 83 thousands tonnes MOP and one lakh 60 thousands Complex fertiliser to Odisha but the state has yet to receive the total amount.

Debi Prasad Mishra, the agriculture minister, has said that so far the state has received only 54 percent fertiliser from the centre. The total amount of fertilisers including the urea hasn't been given so far. He has requested the Central government to give the total quota of feriliser as early as possible. The minister who is in Delhi now has told that he will take this matter to Sharad Pawar, the central agriculture minister.

Notably, the deficiency of urea and other fertiliser has given an opportunity to its black marketing.