The shortfall in supply of fertilisers has raised concerns of a dip in agricultural output, especially paddy in the current kharif season even as marked improvement in monsoon rains have helped the state to cover more than 80 per cent of the targeted sowing area so far.
“We are confident that the targeted kharif sowing area will be achieved but the major problem now is the deficit in supply of fertilisers to the state,” said R S Gopalan, director (agriculture).
So far, we have received only 50 per cent of urea against our demand and this will definitely impact the kharif production this year, he rued.
By August end, the state has received about 212,015 tonne of urea against the requirement of 342,490 tonne during April- August period.
The state government has targeted food grain production at 7.65 million tonnes during this year's kharif. This year's target included 7.22 million tones of cereals (6.38 million tonne rice, 0.65 million tonne maize and 0.17 million tonne ragi) and 0.43 million tonne of pulses (0.13 million tonne arhar, 0.11 million tonne mung and 0.14 million tonne biri).
On the shortage of fertilisers, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for supply of full quota of urea by September. However, due to the even distribution of rains during the year, the kharif sown area this year has surpassed the previous year’s sowing area coverage. The total kharif sown area presently stood at 5.67 million hectares- ha (as on September 7) compared to 5.62 million ha sown in the same period last year.
Paddy- a key kharif crop has been sown over 3.4 million ha area against the target of four million ha. Similarly, pulses, oilseeds, fibers, vegetables and spices are sown on 0.63 million ha, 0.214 million ha, 0.14 million ha, 0.14 million ha and 0.61million ha. This year, the targeted kharif sowing area includes 0.74 million ha of pulses, 0.38 million ha of oilseeds, 0.14 million ha of fibres, 0.32 million ha of vegetables and 0.81 million ha of spices.
