For a smooth and timely supply of fertilizers to the farmers in the State, the Odisha Government has urged the Centre to open three new rake points, make provision for two-point rakes in six places and develop infrastructure in the existing rake points.
In a letter to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said lack of the required number of railway rake points is a major stumbling block in timely supply of the required quantity of fertilisers to the farmers, especially during the peak period. Apart from this, the State is also facing operational difficulties in the existing 21 rake points due to inadequate infrastructure facilities. Besides, the State Government proposed establishment of three new rake points at Bamur (Angul), Rengali (Sambalpur) and Dunguripalli (Subarnapur) and provision of two- point rakes in six places.
“Timely availability of fertilizers with farmers in adequate quantity plays a vital role in increasing production and productivity of agricultural crops. Although there has been some improvement in use of chemical fertilizers in the State, the consumption of fertilizers in the past five years has remained constant around 60 kg/ha, which is below the national average of about 140 kg/ha. With coverage of increased area under high yielding and hybrid varieties, there is a need for enhancing the consumption level of fertilizers, both chemical and organic, to ensure sustainable crop production and higher productivity. Keeping this in view, the State Government has made a programme to increase the fertilizer consumption to a level of 90 kg/ha in the next 5 years,” Patnaik said.
Patnaik further said the State Government had taken various steps such as the provision of corpus funds for State agencies, namely Odisha State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED) and Odisha Agro Industries Corporation (OAIC) for pre-positioning of fertilizers. Besides, the State had also taken steps for construction of godowns at the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) level for pre-positioning of fertilizers in order to make fertilizers available to the farmers of the State in time.