Urea in short supply: Farmers

Tribune News Service

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Palwal, November 30

Farmers in the district, who were facing the shortage of DAP till recently, are now struggling to get adequate supply of urea for rabi crops sown this season.

“The farmers who have already sown the crop are required to use urea at the time of irrigation of the fields which is normally done twice within the period of about one and a half months after sowing as its use boosts the health of the plants tremendously,’’ said Dharambir Singh of Sevli village of the Hodal subdivision.

Time-bound need

The supply of this fertiliser, which is required in ample quantities, has been low in comparison to the demand, as farmers need to put urea in the fields within a gap of 20 to 40 days after the sowing of the wheat crop. Agri experts

He said the availability of urea was less in comparison to the demand. Claiming that the delay threatens adverse impact on the productivity of the crop as its use was time bound, Dal Chand of Raidaska village said while the supply was only 30 to 40 per cent of the demand, the delay had led to crisis.

“Blaming the government for the short supply , Karan Dalal, a former MLA, said while the problem of DAP earlier made the farmers run from pillar to post, now urea had made crop growers suffer.

Though around 18,000 metric tonnes of urea has already been made available in the district, sources claimed that the district required another 20,000 metric tonnes within the next few weeks, as the usage of the urea needed to be done by December-end by a majority of the farmers. The demand for urea was three times higher than that of DAP, it was claimed.

“With the arrival of 4,000 metric tonnes of urea recently, the problem will be addressed properly as more supply is expected soon, said Kuldeep Singh, an official in the Agriculture Department. Rabi crops, mainly wheat, have been sown in an area of 1.06 lakh hectares in the district this time, he added.