Gurugram: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to farmers to cut their use of chemical fertilisers by 25 to 50 percent, government data placed in Parliament suggests the message has not translated into lower consumption on the ground, with sales of all major fertilisers rising sharply this Kharif season compared to last year.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha Friday, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers J.P. Nadda said the availability of urea, Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), Muriate of Potash (MOP), and complex Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium-Sulfur (NPKS) fertilisers had “remained adequate” between April 1 and July 27.But the numbers behind that reassurance tell a fuller story.
All India figures of requirement, availability and actual DBT sales tabled in Parliament as on 19 July showed the figures running well ahead of what was planned for the season.Against a Kharif urea requirement of 109.40 LMT, availability stood at 163.78 LMT and DBT sales had already touched 94.78 LMT—meaning farmers had drawn down nearly 87 percent of the season’s entire urea requirement with more than two months of the Kharif season still to run.The pattern repeats across the other three fertiliser categories: DAP sales of 22.82 LMT against a requirement of 31.57 LMT, MOP sales of 5.50 LMT against a requirement of 10.06 LMT, and NPKS sales of 39.36 LMT against a requirement of 48.48 LMT.How the numbers are worked out
