Himachal Chief Secretary B.K Agarwal on Saturday said that Prime Minister Agriculture Irrigation scheme is being implemented effectively to encourage sprinkler and drip system in the State.
He requested the Union Ministry of Fertilisers to develop such soluble fertilisers that could help the farmers to increase their agricultural production.
Chairing a meeting to review availability of fertilisers to the farmers of the state and the direct benefit scheme being implemented by the central Government, rhe Chief Secretary reviewed the demand and supply of the fertilisers and direct benefit scheme during the meeting.
Agarwal said that the distribution of fertilisers is being monitored through online mobile fertiliser system. The scheme has been started by the Union Ministry of Fertilisers under which total 2129 fertilizer vendors are registered out of which 1751 dealers are selling online and the rest of the vendors will also be able to provide internet facility soon.
Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Onkar Chand Sharma informed that that demand of 48,250 metric tonne fertiliser has been evaluated for Kharif, 2019 in the State and against the demand of 22,000 MT, 33,500 MT of fertilizers have were distributed by June 2019. Moreover, the availability of urea manure is also being fully ensured by the department.
Director, Agriculture informed that the vendors are facing difficulty in updating PSO's due to implementation of 3.0 version in the POS machines and said that the fertiliser suppliers are not fully affording transportation subsidy.