Guwahati: Head of Minister of Assam Himanta Buswa Sarma on Friday said there was a lack of urea in Assam because of black marketing.
Farmers in the state, suspect the transfer of illegal urea, demands investigations about lack of fertilizers that are needed.
“We have received a complaint that fertilizers are being smuggled into Myanmar’s neighbors.
We discuss with fertilizer companies on how to stop smuggling.
After the dark market fertilizer in the state stops, there will be no shortages of urea,” said Sarma, after reviewing various schemes implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture , Horticulture and food here.
The lack of urea fertilizer has regarding the tea industry, because their consumption is high and the other agri sector is difficult in Assam.
This has turned into the eternal because of the alleged lack of monitoring and vigilance by the Department of Agriculture and Marketing Black Urea by parts of immoral traders.
Urea is a must for tea plants applied in three splits (phases) – March-April, June-July and August-September.
Assam requires around 3.55 lakh MT urea every year for 20 lakh hectares of plants fields, including tea and rubber.
But data from the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that there was a shortage of around 68,000 MT urea to date which was a very large amount.
CM on Friday also directs that the Ministry of Agriculture must be proactive in approaching farmers and facilitating the use of the latest agricultural technology while providing them better market relationships.
Being an agrarian country, agriculture must be the main driver of the economy and the Ministry of Agriculture must be one of the best units in the next five years, he said.
He also told officials to maintain the asset register for the department to track assets in various department’s field offices while creating a “permanent asset portal” within 15 days to be updated every year.