BHUBANESWAR: Rampant black marketing of urea has forced farmers to pay a hefty price for the key agricultural input as fertiliser dealers make a killing by hoarding stocks, creating an artificial scarcity. Urea, a popular crop nutrient, is selling in the range of Rs  380 to Rs  400 per 50 kg bag in Western and Southern Odisha districts as against the Government price of Rs  268 per bag.

“Black marketing of urea is rampant as the district administration has turned a blind eye to hoarding of the chemical fertilisers by private traders. We are buying the fertiliser by paying 50 to 60 percent more than the price fixed by the Government,” said Gopal Pradhan, a farmer of Barpali in Bargarh district.The situation is no different in the southern district of Ganjam where the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) are selling urea at Rs  300 per 45 kg bag.

Ganesh Nayak of Sanakhemundi block of Ganjam district told this paper that PACS are charging Rs  70 to Rs  80 more than than actual price of urea while private traders are asking Rs  400 per bag.Repeated complaints to the field staff of the Agriculture and Cooperation departments about blackmarketing of urea have fallen in deaf years. The district administration is not taking action against the unscrupulous traders and the cooperative societies indulging in unfair trade practice, Nayak said.

The State Government has created a corpus of Rs  100 crore for timely supply of the soil nutrients to farmers. The fund is given to the Odisha State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED) and Odisha Agro-industries Corporation at a ratio of 75:25 for sale of fertilisers through identified dealers and PACS.
“There is enough stock of chemical fertilisers in the State. An artificial scarcity has been created by some unscrupulous traders who are hand in glove with district officials,” official sources in Agriculture department said.

The fertiliser stock of the State up to July 31 was 5.12 lakh tonnes against its requirement of 5.07 lakh tonnes. The urea requirement of the State during this period was 2 lakh tonnes but manufacturing companies have delivered 1.99 lakh tonne.

“Our urea requirement for the month of August and September is one lakh tonne each. We have received 90,000 tonne till date,” the sources said. There is no shortage of urea in coastal districts where the demand is low as compared to the Western and Southern districts. Pre-positioning of urea in districts where demand is more was not possible due to shortage of rakes.