The availability of fertilisers, seeds and pesticides for the kharif season is unlikely to be impacted by the West Asia conflict because of robust stocks higher than normally required, an agriculture ministry official said on Wednesday.
“The ministry has conducted a comprehensive review and has made preparations regarding availability of key agri-inputs for the upcoming kharif season,” Maninder Kaur Dwivedi, additional secretary, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare said in a briefing.
Healthy Buffer
The fertiliser requirements of all varieties for forthcoming season is projected at 39.05 million tonne (MT), out of which 18 MT or 46% of the requirement is available at opening stock, the ministry stated.
“This is a fairly good amount available, as by thumb rule the opening stock is about one third of the requirement,” the official said.
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Current fertiliser stocks stand at about 18 MT — 6.19 MT (urea), 2.33 MT (diammonium phosphate – DAP), 5.66 MT (NPKs), 2.52 MT ( Single Super Phosphate -SSP), and muriate of potash (1.27 MT) — compared to 14.7 MT a year ago.
A high level meeting of officials from agriculture and fertiliser ministries along with state secretaries was held on Monday for ensuring timely delivery of soil nutrients to farmers in the forthcoming season which commences in June.
An official said that farmers start application of urea, which boost crop growth by the end of June after sowing of paddy and its applied thrice in an interval of 10 days. “Requirement of around 15 to 16 MT of urea during the kharif season would be met,” an official told FE.
Recently an agriculture ministry official had said that global prices and freight costs have increased, while the domestic production of urea has been impacted due to the West Asia crisis.
Fertiliser imports from the Gulf region account for the country’s consumption of 20%-30% of urea, 30% of DAP, and 50% of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a key feedstock in urea production.
LNG imports from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked because of the conflict.
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Overcoming Logistical Hurdles
For the next season, the total seed requirement for all the major crops – paddy, soybean, groundnut, maize and pulses is estimated to be 1.66 MT against which there is availability of 1.85 MT.
Dwivedi said that the government has faced issues on the availability of LPG to dry out the hybrid maize seeds.
“The only minor hurdle encountered in this regard was the requirement for LPG during the past month to facilitate the drying of hybrid maize seeds; however, through coordination with the Ministry of Petroleum, adequate supplies were made available,” she said.
On the availability of agro-chemical – insecticides, herbicides and fungicides – the agriculture ministry official said that India being one of the largest producers of agrochemicals, sufficient quantities are available for application in the kharif season.
On the prices of essential agricultural commodities, Dwivedi said “by and large, they are within the normal range as they have been in the past few years. The prices of the top crops – tomato, onion, and potato -, are in the range and are showing an improvement, with an improving trend at the wholesale level,”.
TOPICSagricultureThis article was first uploaded on April one, twenty twenty-six, at thirty-eight minutes past eight in the night.