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Punjab short of 4.8 lakh tonne DAP ahead of wheat sowing season
At least 5.5 lakh tonne of DAP is required by Punjab during wheat sowing but the state currently has only about 74,000 tonne in its inventory. During the corresponding time last year, the state had a stock of about 3.5 lakh tonne DAP.
Punjab is facing an acute shortage of agro-chemical di-ammonia phosphate (DAP), a key ingredient during the wheat sowing season, which starts in October and November immediately after paddy harvesting.
At least 5.5 lakh tonne of DAP is required by Punjab but the state currently has only about 74,000 tonne in its inventory. During the corresponding time last year, the state had a stock of about 3.5 lakh tonne DAP.
Agriculture minister Randeep Singh Nabha, said, “I have sought time from the Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers. I will hopefully meet him this week and request him for adequate supply of DAP.”
“DAP is an essential input for ensuing optimum productivity of wheat and it is to be applied at the time of sowing,” the agriculture minister said in a demi-official letter to the central minister.”
“In Punjab, wheat is sown over 35 lakh hectares. Potato sowing has also started, for which at least two quintal per hectare DAP is needed and for wheat, the per hectare requirement is one quintal,” it was further stated.
After Punjab government took up the matter with Centre, an allocation of 2 lakh tonne was made.
An official with the state agricultural department revealed that the usually, the department starts building stocks in the months of August and September, and Markfed is the state agency that procures DAP.
“This year too, Markfed tried to buy stocks but owing to fluctuation in prices in the international market and the policy of subsidy that ended on September 30, Markfed could not buy the stocks,” said the officer.
In the previous season, DAP was imported from China, however, this year, most of the stocks are coming from the United States.
The Centre may have assured Punjab for timely supply of stocks, but it takes 10-15 days for the stocks to reach the state. “How will the Centre fulfill the state’s demand in such a short span? The only saving grace is that paddy harvesting has been delayed by a week to ten days’ this time due to late rainfall. So we hope that by then, the DAP supplies will start reaching the farmers,” the official further said.
