Fertiliser prices zoom, input cost to go up in Punjab

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18

State farmers will have to spend more on growing paddy and other crops during the kharif marketing season, sowing for which will begin next month, with the rates of fertilisers such as diammonium phosphate (DAP) and nitrogen phosphorus potash (NPK) and diesel having gone up substantially.

Centre’s move anti-farmer: AAP

Senior AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema condemned the Centre for raising the price of DAP by Rs700 per bag, saying the loot will break the back of farmers.

The prices of these fertilisers, which have started arriving in the market, have gone up by over 50 per cent. The price of a 50 kg bag of DAP has gone up from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,900 (a hike of 58 per cent), while that of the NPK has gone up from Rs 1,000-1,100 to Rs 1,500-1,800 a bag, a rise of 46-51 per cent. Both these fertilisers are used in sizeable quantity in paddy and maize cultivation. The reason for the steep hike in prices is the sky-rocketing prices of raw materials in the international market. This has been triggered by a Covid-induced global demand-supply gap in raw materials (phosphoric acid and ammonia). The prices are up by $200 a tonne since November.

Though the farmers who purchased these fertilisers from cooperative societies got these at cheaper rates (Rs 1,275 per bag for DAP), others will have to buy these at the market rates.

Officials in Markfed said they generally got advance supplies of the nutrients in November-December, and the supplies came at the old rates of Rs 1,300 per bag of DAP. “Earlier, after getting a subsidy of Rs 10,400 per ton, the DAP would cost suppliers Rs 24,000 per tonne. This will now cost them Rs 38,000 per ton, and this hike will have to be transferred to the farmers. The cooperative societies were instructed to sell the stocks available with them at the old price,” said a senior officer.

Director Agriculture, Punjab, Sukhdev Singh, said for the kharif marketing season, the demand of DAP was 2.25 lakh tonne. “We already have stocks of 1.10 lakh tonne, and the remaining stock will also be available, though at a much higher price,” he said. Farmers rue a majority of them buy fertilisers and nutrients from the open market, because supply through the cooperative societies is often “politicised”, and the societies have already exhausted their low-priced stocks. The loyalists of the ruling party get these from societies, while the rest have to buy it from the market, they claimed.