DAP shortage

The instance of farmers forcibly taking away bags of DAP (diammonium phosphate) from the shop of a private dealer at Ateli grain market in Mahendragarh district of Haryana is a serious matter requiring the attention of the state government. Such incidents have been reported from other parts of the country too, with farmers desperate to get the supply of the fertiliser needed as a plant nutrient to increase the yield of rabi crops. Both the Centre and the state have to be forthcoming on the supply of the state’s allotted quota, the shortfall, and the provisions made to ensure that they reach the farmers. In Haryana, fertilisers are provided mainly through the primary agricultural cooperative societies as well as private dealers. The administration should rule out the possibility of hoarding or bid by the traders to sell the fertiliser on the black market. Haryana had been reporting long queues of farmers to get the supply of DAP because of the inadequate stock being available in the market. In some states, traders have made farmers eligible for the fertiliser only if they have repaid their loans. All these are issues which the local administration needs to look into.

Nearly a third of the country’s DAP requirement is met through domestic production while the rest is through imports, making the government face up to the reality of changing global prices and meeting the shortfall by providing subsidy to the companies to offset the impact on the farming community. A follow-up of the methods adopted by the fertiliser companies to ensure adequate supply to the farmers and the roadblocks therein is needed to prevent an artificial scarcity and panic among the agricultural community.

The DAP shortage follows the coal shortage that resulted in power outages. While this may provide an opportunity for diversification as in the case of Himachal Pradesh that remained unaffected because of its reliance on hydro electricity, the change has to be studied and gradual in the case of fertilisers, to ensure the efficient use of plant nutrients to minimise their adverse impact on the environment. Scarcity should be an exception, not the rule.