Even as Chhattisgarh, the rice bowl of India, heads for a severe fertiliser shortage, the state government has been forced to take drastic steps, underlining the grimness of the situation.
To fill the huge gap between demand and supply, the state government has imposed a ban on selling and transporting single super phosphate (SSP) to other states till local requirements are met. "Officials have been given necessary directions to issue an order to this effect," said Additional Chief Secretary (agriculture) Sergius Minj.
Also, the government has decided to make advance payment to the two SSP units in the state for buying their entire stock. Officials said the government, however, would not fail to buy fertilisers from other states in case of a crisis.
At present, the state has two SSP units with a capacity of 110,000 tonnes each. Now, even if the government buys the entire production of these units, it will not have sufficient stocks to play with, say sources.
Chhattisgarh has set a target of distributing 534,600 tonnes of fertilisers, including 275,340 tonnes of urea, 81,000 tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and 78,000 tonnes of other fertilisers, in the kharif season.
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But the stocks of the state marketing federation, which oversees the distribution work, are only 238,904 tonnes, which include 178,836 tonnes of urea; 26,184 tonnes of DAP, and 10,465 tonnes of SSP.
"The fertiliser crisis in the state has been grim," said Dinesh Shrivastava, managing director of the federation. But the government is making necessary arrangements so that farmers do not suffer, he adds.
As the kharif season progresses, the crisis will go beyond control, says RK Chandrakar, manager of a leading fertiliser cooperative society in Raipur. Most private distributors are not interested in selling in the state due to price and other factors.
"If we sell fertilisers at subsided rates, we get the rest of the amount (dues) only after three-four months," said Anand Pandey, a trader from Durg district, who stopped selling fertilisers two years ago.
This is the reason why farmers mostly have to go to government-run societies. Though these societies have sufficient stocks, farmers do not always get fertilisers of their choice. "For the last two years, we have not received SSP and had to manage with DAP," said Rampyare Sahu, a medium-scale farmer of Charoda village in Raipur district. Moreover, farmers are forced to buy through credit cards and pay interest even if they have the cash.
"What will the farmers do? There are so many problems in buying from the societies and private traders are keeping themselves away from selling fertilisers," Sahu added.