As much as 32.24 lakh tonnes of urea was available in January compared to the requirement of 29.41 lakh tonnes and the maximum quantity was supplied to Uttar Pradesh, followed by Punjab and Haryana, government data released today shows.
Urea, one of the most widely used solid nitrogen fertilizers, is used to boost output of various crops in the country.
"For the rabi (winter) crop season of 2014-15, the all-India requirement of urea for January was assessed at 29.41 lakh tonnes. ...The availability of urea, including the opening stock as on January 31 was 32.34 lakh tonnes," the Fertiliser Ministry said releasing the latest data.
There was a supply plan of 29.59 lakh tonnes of urea in the country for last month, it added.
As per the data, the highest quantity of 7.85 lakh tonnes of urea was supplied to Uttar Pradesh in January when compared to other states.
Urea supply to Punjab was 2.63 lakh tonnes, Haryana (2.6 lakh tonnes), Rajasthan (2.53 lakh tonnes), Gujarat (2.18 lakh tonnes), Madhya Pradesh (2.17 lakh tonnes), Bihar (2.11 lakh tonnes), Andhra Pradesh (2.04 lakh tonnes) and West Bengal (1.06 lakh tonnes) in the the month of January.
Urea supply to states such Assam, Uttarkhand, Odisha, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir was put together was less than 1,00,000 tonnes in January, it said.
Urea is provided to farmers at a fixed subsidised maximum retail price (MRP) of Rs 5,360 per tonne. The difference between the cost of production and MRP of urea is provided as subsidy to manufacturers.
India produces about 22 million tonnes of urea and imports about 8-9 million tonnes to meet the shortfall.
