Agriculture department urged to regulate fertilisers supply

'There is no proper estimation on the fertiliser requirements'

Agriculture is the prime occupation of the taluk. Farmers will be happy only if they get good rains and sufficient fertilisers. Last year, it rained well but the farmers were is deep trouble due to the improper supply of fertilisers.

According to the Department of Agriculture, the taluk has paddy fields of over 6,000 hectares. Apart from this, people also depend on banana, ginger, areca, rubber, turmeric and other commercial crops. The point to be noted here is that more fertiliser is being used here for commercial crops than for the paddy.

As per the department, over 3,850 tonne fertilisers had been supplied in the taluk last year. A local co-operative society had a turn over of more than one crore rupees. Private agencies had also sold much of the quantity.

Demand vs supply

The Department of Agriculture considers the requirements of only khata land holdings.

But in realty, since there is more encroached land in the taluk, the people feel that the estimation of the department would not suffice the necessity. The department does not have any data on the demand from the unauthorised cultivators.

The taluk that shares a prominent place in per capita income of the State, has more demand for fertilisers due to the dominance of commercial crops. Ferliser is usually supplied to the co-operative societies through the State Co-operative Federation on the basis of the estimation the local Agriculture Department gives to the Joint Director of the Department. Since the private agencies get fertiliser directly from the companies, they get it quickly, while the co-operative societies should wait for a long time. By that time, the private people reap good profit in their business.

Amidst this, there are also allegations that officials involve in illegal sale of fertilisers at various levels. There are suspicions on the sources of fertilisers of the large scale cultivators and estate owners in the Malnad area. Raita Sangha District President Vinayak said the problems could be solved if the department takes prior steps to prepare proper statistics on the requirements and enough vigilance during distribution.

However, the eventual point of the farmers is that there is no use by supplying any quantity of fertilisers if it is not supplied in time.