Centre urged to ensure adequate supply of urea to farmers in TG

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao on Monday urged the Union Fertilizers and Chemicals Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra to ensure that adequate urea is allocated and distributed to Telangana farmers as soon as possible. As part of his visit to Delhi, the minister explained that adequate urea should be supplied to Telangana farmers in these ten days, as urea imports were not at the expected level due to various reasons. Speaking on the occasion, the minister said, “Urea is essential for major crops like paddy, maize and cotton currently being cultivated in the state. These fifteen days are especially crucial in the agricultural season. If fertilizers are not available to farmers during this time, the crops will be severely affected. Therefore, we have requested the Center to ensure that the supply of urea continues continuously.”

The Minister also said that they have requested 2 lakh metric tonnes of urea this month to make up for the urea deficit that arose in the previous months. He also said that when another lakh metric tonnes of urea was requested to be supplied in the next 10 days, Rajat Kumar Mishra said that 80,000 metric tons would be supplied this week. As part of that, the Minister said that the government has also issued orders allocating 40,000 metric tons from IPL, CIL, NBCL companies through ships Rek Grace (2700 MT), GN Ruby (8100 MT), Grace Harmony (7800 MT), Endeavor (13000 MT), Wadi Albostan (8100 MT).

The Minister expressed hope that this allocated urea would reach the state soon, which will reduce the urea problems of Telangana farmers. The Minister explained that 1,04,000 metric tons of urea have been supplied to the state in the first 15 days of September. The Minister said that he had assured that steps will be taken to send the remaining amount as well.

Nageswara Rao further revealed that even though domestic production was not at the expected level, the Union Secretary assured that Telangana would be given priority through imports.