Wheat sowing set to begin today amid DAP shortage

Wheat sowing will begin in the state tomorrow amid shortage of diammonium phosphate (DAP). Farmers, already battling economic crisis, are forced to buy the fertiliser from the open market at a high price and with a pack of pesticides.

Information available with The Tribune shows that against a requirement of 5.50 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of DAP for wheat crop, the state has just 3.50 LMT, with around 40,000 metric tonnes expected to arrive next week. Though more stocks are expected in November, the shortage at the onset of sowing season has created a panic among farmers. Last year, Punjab had received just 4 LMT of DAP in the rabi marketing season.

Though officially the government maintains that there is no shortage of DAP and the state will have adequate stock next month, farmers from four districts — Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur and Patiala — have been complaining of severe scarcity of the fertiliser. They rue that while primary agriculture cooperative societies do not have enough DAP, private traders were selling it at a premium. Against a price of Rs 1350 per bag, private traders are charging Rs 1,800-Rs 2,000 by tagging a pesticide to each bag even as farmers do not need it.

Today, AAP MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney demanded strict action against dealers selling DAP at prices higher than MRP or forcing other products on poor farmers. He supported the demand raised by some MLAs of the state to register FIRs and cancel the licences of such unscrupulous dealers.

On the complaint of Ropar MLA Dinesh Chadha, an FIR was registered a few days ago against the “rake handler”, who had the licence to get DAP in the state.

Bahadur Singh, president of Cooperative Societies Employees Union, said most of the 3520 societies did not have sufficient DAP stocks to meet the requirement of their members. “In Fatehgarh Sahib, no stock of DAP has been received in the past fortnight,” he said.

Official sources claimed that they had supplied 1.65 LMT of DAP to cooperative societies so far this year.

Darshan Singh, a farmer from Kularan village in Patiala, said private traders were taking payment for DAP tagged with pesticides at their shops, but delivering it at farmers’ homes. He added that the traders did not want the farmers to know about the place where the bags had been stocked.

Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian told The Tribune that the department was working to the best of its ability to ensure that the entire requirement of DAP was met and unscrupulous dealers were brought to book.

He said they were ensuring that 60% of the total DAP supply in the state was routed through cooperative societies so as to prevent fleecing of farmers.