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Ambarish Mukherjee

`Contingency plan in case of sudden spurt in demand'

New Delhi April 24 While the fertiliser industry is projecting a probable shortage of fertiliser in the market during the current kharif season, the Union Government is of the view that the current stock position is comfortable and there is no likelihood of any shortage.

The Secretary, Department of Fertiliser (DoF), Dr J.S. Sarma, told Business Line that the current stock of urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MoP) added with the estimated domestic production during April and May would be substantially higher than the estimated requirement during the two months.

"In case of urea, the total April-May stock volume is 44.2 lakh tonnes against a projected demand of 33.34 lakh tonnes. For DAP, April-May stock is 17.89 lakh tonnes against a requirement of 10.8 lakh tonnes and for MoP, the total stock position is 5.37 lakh tonnes against an estimated demand of 1.75 tonnes in April and 2.34 lakh tonnes in May," Mr Sarma said.

"As of today, there are 1.34 lakh tonnes of urea, 1.43 lakh tonnes of DAP and 3.22 lakh tonnes of MoP in the ports. We started the kharif season with an opening stock of 15.71 lakh tonnes of urea, 7.52 lakh tonnes of DAP and 2.15 lakh tonnes of MoP," Mr Sarma said.

He further pointed out that the estimated indigenous production of urea in April expected to be 11.36 lakh tonnes and another 15.76 lakh tonnes during May.

The demand for urea, as estimated by the DoF based on inputs provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, for April is 13.41 lakh tonnes and for May 20.79 lakh tonnes.

In case of DAP, domestic production in April and May is expected to be 4.2 lakh tonnes and 4.74 lakh tonnes, respectively. The projected demand for DAP in April and May is expected to be 4.32 lakh tonnes and 6.48 lakh tonnes, respectively.

The Government has also put in place a contingency plan in case there is sudden spurt of demand during June and July. "For this, plans are afoot to import a total of 23 lakh tonnes of urea, 17.5 lakh tonnes of DAP and 18 lakh tones of MoP by the end of June," Mr Sarma said.

More Stories on : Fertilisers | Cultivation

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