Fertilisers not available, Kangra farmers worried

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, November 12

Farmers in the lower Kangra areas, comprising Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur and Nagrota Surian are a harried lot due to the non-availability of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium (NPK) fertilisers required for wheat sowing.

These fertilisers are used while sowing and farmers are unable to procure the same either from the state agriculture department’s retail outlets or in the open market. The farmers have started buying wheat seeds but in the absence of fertilisers, they could not start sowing.

As per information, wheat is cultivated in around 16,000 hectares and at least 16,000 quintals of fertilisers is required to sow it. Farmers Subhash Singh, Ravinder Singh and Diwan Singh of Kopra, Ashok Kumar of Lagor and Kamal of Thora said they purchased wheat seeds last week but could not sow them as no fertiliser was available. Nurpur Subject Matter Specialist (SMS) Sushil Kumar admitted that no fertiliser supply had been received in his agriculture block so far.

Inquiries revealed that the whole state was facing the problem as the Centre had not yet allotted fertilisers to the state.

Jeet Singh, deputy director of agriculture, Palampur, said fertilisers were procured by Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing and Consumer Federation Ltd (Himfed) and he had submitted requirement of the whole Kangra district to the state government. “As soon as Himfed gets the supply, the department will immediately make the same available in its retail outlets across the district,” he stated.

Suresh Pathania, Bharatiya Kisan Union Kangra chief, appealed to the government to ensure timely supply of fertilisers so that farmers could start wheat sowing before drying up of the soil.