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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched subsidised urea under single brand 'Bharat' as part of One Nation, One Fertiliser scheme and inaugurated 600 Kisan Samruddhi Kendras, saying these two reforms will boost availability and ensure quality fertilisers.
Modi also unveiled international weekly fertiliser e-magazine 'Indian Edge' at the event PM Kisan Samman Sammelan 2022 organised jointly by agriculture and fertiliser ministries.
The Centre has started a new scheme - Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojana - One Nation One Fertilizer (ONOF) - under which it is mandatory for companies to market subsidised fertiliser under single brand 'Bharat'.
After launching the brand for the most consumed and highly subsidised fertiliser urea, the prime minister said branding subsidised fertilisers to ensure quality is a major reform undertaken by the government.
Farmers are in "illusion and confused" about fertiliser brands and are not getting the quality soil nutrients because at one hand retailers are pushing certain brands for want of higher commission and on the other hand companies run advertisement campaigns of their products, he said.
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Now, these problems have been resolved under ONOF, he added.
"One brand and one quality of urea will be sold across the nation. This brand would be 'Bharat.' Now urea will be available in the brand name of Bharat," Modi said.
With single branding, the competition among companies that push their brands will get reduced. It will also ensure sufficient supply of fertilisers across the country, he added.
Modi, who also inaugurated 600 'PM-Kisan Samruddhi Kendras (PM-KSK) at the event, said these will act as one- stop-shop that would provide multiple services to farmers.
PM-KSK will not only supply agri-inputs like seeds, fertilisers and farm implements, but also provide testing facilities for soil, seeds and fertilisers, besides information about government schemes, he said.
At present, fertiliser retail shops in the country are company-managed, cooperative shops or retailed to private dealers. These retail shops will now be converted into PM-KSKs.
Modi said about 3.25 lakh fertiliser retail shops will be converted into PM-KSKs across the country.
Expressing concern over import dependency of fertilisers, the prime minister stressed on the need to be "self-reliant" in the commodity to prevent the impact of global shock on the import bill.
"When there is a global problem, it impacts. First, coronavirus came and we faced it...Then war started from where we buy maximum. For example, be it urea, DAP or other fertilisers, they are getting costlier and impacting our economy," he said.
Citing an example, he mentioned that the country is buying urea at Rs 75-80 per kg and selling to farmers at Rs 5-6 per kg.
"This has an impact on our exchequer and creates problems in implementing many works," he said, adding that about Rs 2.5 lakh crore is the spending on fertilisers this year.
Modi said there is a need to work on a mission mode to reduce import of at least food and agriculture items.
Highlighting steps taken in the last eight years to ensure sufficient supply of fertilisers, Modi said there used to be a fertiliser crisis with black marketing rampant prior to 2014 and farmers had to face 'lathi charge'.
Fertiliser units were shut down for many years and had to depend on imports.
The current government, however, took steps to end black marketing with introduction of neem-coated urea and revival of six closed urea units and promoting liquid nano urea to become self-reliant and reduce import-dependency, he added.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya were also present at the event. More than one crore farmers virtually joined the event.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
