The Government today directed all the fertilizer companies operating in the State to ensure availability of fertilisers to farmers at block level. The Director, Agriculture, Jammu, who is also the Fertiliser Controller for the State, has been asked to blacklist the companies which fail to comply with this directive.The directive came during a fertilizer review meeting here today convened by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Ghulam Hassan Mir. The meeting reviewed the stock and availability of different fertilizer strands like Urea, DAP, MOP etc. in the State.
Addressing the meeting, the Minister stressed on the availability of fertilizers to farmers before the sowing season. He asked for sending fertilizers to areas like Ladakh, Poonch, Rajouri, Doda etc. areas before the onset of sowing season in view of the difficult terrain and harsh climatic conditions. “In no way should there be any scarcity of fertilizers in the State”, Mr. Mir directed.Mr. Mir directed facilitating entry of more and more private players in fertilizer distribution so that the same is made available to farmers in a hassle free manner. He asked the fertilizer companies to undertake fertilizer awareness camps for farmers in the State and asked them to submit their activity proposals to the Government within 15 days.
The Minister directed the Director, Agriculture, Jammu to monitor the activities of retail and wholesale fertilizer unit holders and encourage only genuine, active and compliant unit holders.The meeting was told that at present 4600 tonnes of urea is stocked in the State, out of which 970 tonnes are stocked at Jammu and 3679 tonnes have been stocked at Kashmir, whileas, 9000 tonnes of DAP have also been stocked in the State.The meeting was told that J&K Agro Industries and JAKFED are also making sufficient credit available for procurement of fertilizers.Director Agriculture, Jammu, Mr. A. K. Khajuria, Managing Director, J&K Agro Industries, Mr. Abdul Majeed Bhat, Managing Director JAKFED, Mr. Javid Ahmad Shah, officers from several wings of Agriculture Department besides representatives of fertilizer companies were present in the meeting.