Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s current directive to Chief Ministers, urging strict motion towards substandard fertilizers, seems to be a calculated deflection from a extra urgent concern: a rising fertilizer scarcity throughout India. Whereas the Minister’s letter frames the issue as one in every of “pretend fertilizers” and “black advertising and marketing,” it conspicuously sidesteps the actual and mounting complaints from states like Punjab, Telangana, and Rajasthan, all clamoring for elevated provides.
The timing of this communication is especially telling. On one hand, the federal government is pushing a story of curbing malpractices; on the opposite, it’s grappling with a major surge in fertilizer demand. Through the April-June quarter of the present fiscal 12 months, gross sales of key fertilizers—urea, DAP, MOP, and complicated—collectively jumped by 12.5 per cent to roughly 121 lakh tonnes. This features a 10 per cent improve in urea gross sales and a exceptional 31 per cent rise in advanced fertilizers, with MOP greater than doubling. This spurt in demand, fuelled by a beneficial monsoon, straight contradicts the federal government’s ongoing marketing campaign to cut back chemical fertilizer use and promote ‘pure’ or ‘natural’ farming.
The core of the issue, nevertheless, lies in supply-side administration and distribution. Whereas the Minister’s letter stresses the states’ duty to make sure “enough availability of fertilisers on the proper locations and areas,” it overlooks the central authorities’s pivotal function in manufacturing, import, and general allocation. States aren’t merely battling black advertising and marketing; they’re going through a basic lack of ample provide.
Proof of this underlying scarcity is ample. Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy just lately met with Fertilizers Minister J.P. Nadda, explicitly demanding an uninterrupted provide of urea for July-August. Equally, Rajasthan Agriculture Minister Kirodi Lal Meena has urged Minister Chouhan for greater provides, whilst he uncovered a large-scale pretend fertilizer operation. Uttar Pradesh can be implementing measures like month-to-month caps on farmer purchases, an indicator of strained availability.
The Centre’s narrative of “curbing unlawful actions” appears to conveniently overshadow the rising hole between demand and provide. The truth that Fertilizers Minister J.P. Nadda was in Saudi Arabia on July 12, exploring fast provide potentialities for urea and DAP, additional underscores the severity of the scarcity. His pressing attraction to Saudi firms to spend money on India’s fertilizer sector speaks volumes in regards to the long-term challenges in home manufacturing and securing worldwide provides.
In essence, the present fertilizer “scarcity” will not be merely about counterfeit merchandise or black marketeers. It’s a posh concern exacerbated by surging demand, doubtlessly inadequate central allocation, and a strategic misdirection from the federal government. Whereas addressing malpractices is essential, a extra proactive and clear strategy to making sure enough fertilizer provide is instantly required to help India’s agricultural spine.
Printed on July 13, 2025