Agri Minister writes to Centre seeking timely supply of urea, DAP

State Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam on Monday wrote to Union government asking to ensure timely supply of urea and fertilizers to the state as per the supply plan given earlier.

In his DO letter to Union Chemical and Fertilizer Minister Mansukh L Mandaviya, Minister Panneerselvam referred to increase in paddy acreage in the state this year and said the kuruvai paddy (Kharif) coverage in Cauvery Delta region surpassed 4.9 lakh acres, which is the highest in the last 46 years.

Major reservoirs in southern part of the state were also opened after several years, which helped the state to cover an area of more than 10 lakh acres under paddy, which is 2.72 lakh acres higher than the last year, the Minister told the Union Minister, before adding that the area under cultivation of all crops put together exceeds 25.4 lakh acres.

“Hence, the demand for fertilizers particularly, urea and Di-ammonium Phospate (DAP) has increased during this year. To meet the demand, the Government of India was kind enough to accord supply plan of 3.838 lakh MT of urea for the period of April to August 2021,” Panneerselvam said, drawing the Minister’s attention to shortfall of 1.278 lakh MT till August 2021 as the state has only received 2.56 lakh MT so far.

Requesting the Union Minister to give suitable instructions to his officials to ensure timely supply of the entire urea and DAP to TN as per the supply plan given by the Centre through vessel placements at ports in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to meet the increasing demand, he said, “Any shortfall in supply of urea and DAP will drastically affect the crop yield and in turn income of the farmers.”

Pointing out that only 0.87MT of DAP has been received, against 1.20 lakh MT stated in the supply plan (shortfall of 33,000 MT), the Minister said the state farmers were in need of urea for basal dose for crops to be raised and top dressing for all crops cultivated in more than 25.4 lakh acres.