Availability of Urea more than sales, there is no shortage of urea in any part of the country:

Availability of Urea more than sales, there is no shortage of urea in any part of the country: Shri Rao Inderjit Singh

Minister of State for Planning (IC) and Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, in a written reply to a question by Kumari Selja on shortage of urea in the country and steps taken by Government to redress the hardships faced by the poor farmers, in Rajya Sabha today, informed that there is no shortage of urea in any part of the country.

The Minister provided State-wise, requirement (demand), availability and sales of urea in the country.    It can be seen from the statements that availability of urea was more than the sales and therefore there is no shortage, Shri Singh added.

State-wise Requirement, Availability & Sales of urea during 2017-18 (As on 20.03.2018)
State	Urea
	Requirement projected	Availability	Sales
Andhra Pradesh	1550.00	1438.55	1390.97
Assam	295.00	356.81	347.04
Bihar	2100.00	2009.03	1961.69
Chhattisgarh	670.00	635.76	567.62
Goa	2.88	2.23	2.23
Gujarat	2000.00	2239.80	2188.28
Haryana	1800.00	2075.95	1997.44
Himachal Pradesh	66.00	69.16	67.69
Jammu and kashmir	128.01	134.70	123.09
Jharkhand	240.00	213.26	205.43
Karnataka	1350.00	1338.04	1283.34
Kerala	110.00	134.95	130.02
Madhya Pradesh	2200.00	2417.43	2279.65
Maharashtra	2700.00	2302.87	2246.75
Manipur	22.00	20.77	20.77
Odisha	525.00	512.30	505.75
Puducherry	14.00	10.46	10.19
Punjab	2550.00	2799.80	2713.03
Rajasthan	1850.00	1687.90	1647.70
Tamil Nadu	900.00	850.67	847.75
Telangana	1380.00	1420.09	1377.83
Tripura	43.00	17.68	17.68
Uttarakhand	235.00	314.02	304.24
Uttar Pradesh	5850.00	6105.61	5758.27
West Bengal	1250.00	1207.91	1171.69
TOTAL	29852.29	30334.96	29185.30

Further, Shri Singh informed that before the commencement of each cropping season, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), in consultation with all the State Governments, assesses the requirement of fertilizers. After assessment of requirement, DAC&FW projects month-wise requirement of fertilizers.

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:

• 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);
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Thus, with the steps as indicated above, Department of Fertilizers ensures adequate availability of fertilizers to the farmers. The availability of fertilizers is adequate in the country, the Minister informed.