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Kerala to take up fertilizer shortage with Centre

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government would take up with the Centre the issue of severe shortage of fertilizers in the State, Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Rathnakaran told the Assembly on Thursday.

Responding to a calling attention motion from Rajaji Mathew Thomas (CPI), the Minister said that the matter would be raised at the review meeting of the Ministry of Fertilizers at Delhi on Friday. Fertilizer production and allocation of State quotas were done by the Central government. All that the State government could do was to exert pressure on the Centre for higher allocations. On its part, the State government would consider constituting a designated fertilizer agency for Kerala, Mr. Rathnakaran added.

The Minister said the State had been allotted only 3,092.70 tonnes of DAP (Di-Ammonium Phosphate) against a requirement of 9,148 tonnes for the months of April, May and June.

The State would also face a shortage of urea if the Centre did not allot 5,000 tonnes for the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) and Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), which were the suppliers for Kerala.

The FACT had also cut production of Factumphos by over half which had resulted in a shortage of the fertilizer. Out of 7,600 tonnes that FACT was supposed to supply, only 3,000 tonnes had been supplied till date.

Although the Agriculture Department had tried to bridge the shortage with 20.20 complex fertilizer of IFFCO, the Fertilizer Ministry did not make the necessary allocation to IFFCO, he said.

Mr. Rathnakaran said he had written several times to Union Minister for Fertilizer Ram Vilas Paswan on the subject.

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