Warangal: Frightened farmers purchase more urea

Warangal: Farmers in erstwhile Warangal district are hit by shortages of urea and potassium-based fertiliser. They complained of the inadequate supply of urea causing hindrance to the farming of paddy, maize and cotton.  

Mulugu district is facing the highest shortage of urea. For the 34,000 hectares of land under paddy cultivation, an estimated 27,445 metric tonn-es of urea is required but till now only 7,488 metric tonnes was disbursed.

Jayashankar Bhupal-pally received 7,800 metric tonnes of urea for the 24,000 hectares under cultivation against a requirement of 9,800 metric tonnes.

While 25,000 hectares of land is under cultivation in Mahbubabad, 11,980 metric tonnes of urea is required but so far only 6,980 metric tonnes was distributed.

Warangal Urban and Warangal Rural districts require 55,000 metric tonnes of urea for the 46,000 hectares of land under cultivation. The officials received 46,000 metric tonnes of urea. The remaining shortage of urea is 9,000 metric tonnes.

Joint director of agriculture Usha Dayal said the shortage was created by farmers purchasing more urea than required.

“Farmers must not believe rumours regarding the shortage of urea. We are procuring urea as per requirement. We are monitoring the situation every day and procuring urea to ensure all the farmers receive it without fail,” she said.

Farmers are urging officials to speed up the procurement process as this is the time when the crops require urea and potassium.