Will the Minister of CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS be pleased to state:-
(a) the production and consumption of urea in the country at present ;
(b) the gap between demand and supply of urea along with the targets fixed for the next three years;
(c ) the steps taken by the Government to eliminate the shortage and irregularities in supply of urea ; and
(d) the steps being taken by the Government to ensure regular supply of fertilizers in backward, remote and hilly areas of the country ?
MINISTER OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS
(SHRI ANANTH KUMAR)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (d) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *133 FOR REPLY ON 03.05.2016REGARDING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF UREA.
(a) The production and consumption of urea in the country for the year 2015-16 are given below:-
(Figure in ‘LMT’)
Product Production Consumption/Sale
Urea 244.75 319.64
(b): The demand of fertilizers is assessed and projected season-wise by the Department of Agriculture, Co-operation & Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW) in consultation with the State Governments for which bi-annual conferences are held before commencement of each cropping season. The gap between demand and production is met through imports. The requirement for Kharif 2016(April to September, 2016), as assessed by DAC&FW is 155.13 LMT which includes reserve allocation of 7.74 LMT. The requirement(demand) is fulfilled through indigenous production and imports. The season-wise target for next 3 years, as per the system in vogue, will be fixed before commencement of the season.
(c)& (d): To ensure adequate availability as per demand and to eliminate the shortage and irregularities in supply of Urea in all parts of the country including in backward, remote and hilly areas, the Department of Fertilizers takes following steps: -
(1) The month-wise demand is assessed and projected by the Department of Agriculture & Co-operation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) in consultation with the State Governments before commencement of each cropping season.
(2) On the basis of month-wise & state-wise projection given by DAC&FW, Department of Fertilizers allocates sufficient/ adequate quantities of fertilizers to States by issuing monthly supply plan and continuously monitors the availability through following system: -
(i) The movement of all major subsidized fertilizers is monitored throughout the country by an on-line web based monitoring system (www.urvarak.co.in) also called as Fertilizer Monitoring System (FMS);
(ii) The State Governments are regularly advised to coordinate with manufacturers and importers of fertilizers for streamlining the supplies through timely placement of indents for railway rakes through their state institutional agencies like Markfed etc.
(iii) Regular Weekly Video Conference is conducted jointly by Department of Agriculture & Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Department of Fertilizers (DoF) and Ministry of Railways with State Agriculture Officials and corrective actions are taken to dispatch fertilizer as indicated by the State Governments.
(iv) The gap between demand (requirement) and production is met through import.
3. Apart from above, in the year 2015-16, Government of India notified New Urea Policy 2015 on account of which the indigenous production has increased by 18.90 LMT.
4. Further, Government of India has made it mandatory to 100% neem coating of indigenous Urea as well as imported Urea, which has resulted in curbing diversion, thus, improving availability of Urea.
5. States were impressed upon for pre-positioning of Urea before the start of the year 2015-16 and in the lean months of February’15 and March’15 about 24.80 LMT Urea was pre-positioned with the States, which helped in eliminating any shortage and irregularities in supply of Urea.
6. Timely imports were planned spreading across Eastern and Western Ports, which resulted in filling the gap between requirement and indigenous production.
7. Record number of railway rakes were deployed to move fertilizers to every nook and corner of the country, which resulted in availability of fertilizers in adequate quantity as per demand throughout the year and no report of shortages was received from any State.
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