Enough fertiliser for kharif season: Centre

Assuring farmers about availability of fertilisers, the Centre on Saturday said there was more than adequate stocks of fertilisers at this point of time, especially for kharif season.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said all our international partners had assured us of uninterrupted supplies and "we hope to attain and maintain comfortable stocks of fertilisers by the time Kharif demand peaks by 15th of May".

⁠He added that the Department of Fertilisers had put out global tenders well in time, in anticipation of the current situation. These had received a very good response and the government expected to receive the bulk of the quantities ordered from a variety of sources by March-end.

⁠Jaiswal said our stocks of urea were more than what they were at this point last year. “Our DAP stocks are double of what they were last year. Our NPK stock position is similarly much higher today in comparison to last year,” he added.

Though the MEA spokesperson did not mention it, official data showed that stockpiles of fertiliser, including urea, were about 18 million tonnes as of this week, and that is up by almost 37 per cent from a year earlier.

Jaiswal added that as far as the domestic production of urea was concerned, the current production would be more than the nominal consumption, especially since the rabi season was coming to an end.