A severe fertiliser shortage is threatening the timely sowing of potato and allied crops such as mustard in the ‘potato belt’ of Uttar Pradesh. Thousands of farmers in the region are facing problems procuring the requisite quantity of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and urea.
At least half a dozen incidents of mobbing, agitation by troubled peasants and ensuing lathi-charge by the police and PAC jawans have occurred in various districts of the region last week.
Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) Secretary Keshav Singh told Business Standard that peasants are being forced to buy DAP at the exorbitant rates maintained by the black marketers and illicit hoarders. According to Singh, the co-operative societies and selling centres are able to provide only 20 per cent of the demand, while the rest has to be fulfilled from the open market, which is controlled by the hoarders.
Though famers queue up from midnight to the morning of the distribution day, they are forced to return empty-handed because of the short supply.
In Farrukhabad and Urai, the peasant unrest was manifested in the form of road blocks and strikes, following which around 20 peasants were injured by the police action.
DAP, priced at Rs 471 per pack, is selling in the black market at Rs 550-700, putting the poorer and marginal peasants, already bearing heavy losses in potato and garlic, in trouble.
“In Jalaun, the society owner forged a sale of 450 fertiliser packets and declined to distribute further citing stock exhaustion. When the peasants found the truth, there was a riot,” Singh said.
Though the agriculture department had instigated a movement against the black marketeers, it seems to have run out of fire. The demand for DAP is expected to rise by mid-November when the sowing of wheat will start. This quota will be distributed at the rate of 250,000 tonnes per month.
“The government should develop some mechanism to regulate the improper and biased distribution system and take timely action against the culprits, so that the common peasant can hope to continue with farming as a vocation,” lamented Singh.
The shortage wills seriously hamper the state government’s plans to push agriculture as a significant contributor to development. “If the authorities do not act fast, the scheme that the government took to bring back agriculture into many rural homes will go haywire,” said Professor R P Katiyar at CSA agricultural University, Kanpur.
