Adequate Availability of Fertilizers in the Country

Adequate Availability of Fertilizers in the Country

                        There is no considerable time lag between indented demand and actual supply of fertilizers to farmers.  Government takes following steps to ensure availability of fertilizers: -

(I) Before the commencement of each cropping season, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), after consultation with all the State Governments, assesses the requirement of fertilizers. After assessment of requirement, DAC&FW projects month-wise requirement of fertilizers.

(II) On the basis of month-wise & state-wise projection given by DAC&FW, Department of Fertilizers allocates sufficient/ adequate quantities of fertilizers to States by issuing monthly supply plan and continuously monitors the availability through following system:

(i)     The movement of all major subsidized fertilizers is being monitored throughout the country by an on-line web based monitoring system called integrated Fertilizer Monitoring System (iFMS);

(ii)   The State Governments are regularly advised to coordinate with manufacturers and importers of fertilizers for streamlining the supplies through timely placement of indents for railway rakes through their state institutional agencies like Markfed etc.

(iii) Regular Weekly Video Conference is conducted jointly by Department of Agriculture & Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Department of Fertilizers (DoF), and Ministry of Railways with State Agriculture Officials and corrective actions are taken to dispatch fertilizer as indicated by the State Governments.

(iv) The gap between demand (requirement) and production is met through imports. The import for the season is also finalised well in advance to ensure timely availability.

Due to the above efforts Department of Fertilizers has ensured availability of fertilizers in all States. However, distribution within the State as per requirement is the responsibility of the concerned State Government. 

                        The availability of fertilizers viz. Urea, DAP, MOP and NPK has been adequate during 2015-16 and current year, (from April to October 2016-17).  The availability and sales are given as under:

<Figure in LMT>

Product	2015-16			2016-17 (Upto Oct'16)
	Requirement	Availability	Sales	Requirement	Availability	Sales
Urea	313.35	329	319.68	173.39	182.23	161.45
DAP	102.34	101.28	97.47	65.64	66.74	52.39
MOP	36.08	25.71	24.23	20.22	18.91	16.32
NPK	105.88	98.03	92.68	63.93	59.64	48.03

It can be seen from the above table that the availability of fertilizers in the country was adequate against the requirement and sales.

            This information was given by the Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shipping, Road Transport & Highways Sh. Mansukh L. Mandaviya in the Rajya Sabha today.

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