Lalu’s Railway Budget has not solved all the problems for agriculture sector. The problem of availability of wagons in time for transportation of chemical fertilizers and food grains and agro produces still remains. The agriculture ministry has decided to take up this issue with the railway ministry.
In the current rabi (winter) crop season there was problem of transportation imported DAP and MoP fertilizers due to non-availability of railway wagons. “The availability of all major fertilizers like urea, DAP and MoP at the macro level was adequate. However some wheat growing states faced tight supply of DAP in the peak consuming months and some states in south India also faced tight availability of MoP and complex fertilizers. We will take up this issue with the railway ministry,” said a senior official in the agriculture ministry.
The total requirement of urea in the current rabi season was estimated at 140.03 lakh tonne against which 95.39 lakh tonne was supplied to farmers. The requirement of DAP was estimated at 49.13 lakh tonne against which 33.15 lakh tonne was supplied to farmers. Similarly in the rabi season the requirement of MoP was estimated at 19.61 lakh tonne against which only 9.33 lakh tonne was supplied to farmers.
For the forthcoming kharif season the total requirement of urea is estimated at 137.64 lakh tonne, that of DAP at 42.07 lakh tonne and that of MoP at 17.86 lakh tonne.
