Amid China’s fertiliser export curbs, Ropar farmers hit by urea shortage

Facing acute shortage of urea, farmers in Ropar district today met the general manager of the National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL) unit in Nangal. They demanded that urea fertilisers should be released to the cooperative societies of farmers.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, sources at NFL told The Tribune that the shortage of fertilisers, including urea and DAP in India is going to be acute as China has imposed ban on exports of fertilisers. India has a domestic capacity of about 350 lakh tonnes of urea whereas the demand in the country is about 450 lakh tonne. Major imports of urea and DAP come from China.

Since Punjab has major urea consumption, farmers in the region are going to face shortage. Besides the farmers sowing paddy, horticulturists are also likely to face problems in getting supplies of DAP fertiliser, the sources added.

In view of the acute shortage being faced by farmers in the region, a delegation of farmer organisations met senior officials of NFL today and submitted a memorandum of their demands. The farmers urged the officials to ensure full allocation of urea quota to cooperative societies and dealers in the area, and also demanded reopening of NFL’s closed fertiliser purchase centre.

The delegation, including Surjeet Singh Dher, district president of All India Kisan Sabha (Punjab); Raghubir Singh Darshi, state-level leader of All India Kisan Sabha; Gurnam Singh Aulakh; and Davinder Nangli, today submitted a memorandum to NFL’s chief manager Megh Nath Goel, alleging severe shortage of urea in the area.

The officials assured the farmer leaders that urea supply would be provided to dealers and cooperative societies on priority. They also promised that the closed purchase centre would be reopened soon to benefit local farmers.

The farmer leaders alleged that the quota requested by the cooperative societies was cut down by the Cooperation Department itself, which led to the current crisis.

The general manager of NFL plant at Nangal, MN Goel, when contacted said that there were no pending orders with the plant, especially with respect to Ropar. I have asked farmers who met me today to meet the officials of cooperative department and private dealers. If the dealers and cooperative societies place orders with us, we shall provide them fertilisers. Currently, we have no pending order for urea supply and the plant was working on full capacity, he said.

Punjab