Gurugram: A long queue of farmers waited outside a police station at the Badhra town of Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, last week. They waited not to lodge complaints but to purchase di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser, required for sowing wheat, among other crops.
Haryana farmers are struggling with a DAP shortage this rabi season, during which sowing is around November’s first half, and harvesting is around April.
Badhra is not an isolated case where police stations are distributing the DAP fertiliser. Reports of farmers getting the fertiliser from police stations have also come from Bhiwani, Gohana, and Jind, among other places.
Amid claims and counterclaims on the fertiliser shortage from the state government and the opposition parties, many farmers have, so far, not started wheat sowing. Delayed sowing, agricultural experts say, would affect wheat yield and production.
The Haryana agriculture department’s area under crops report for 18 November shows that against a 24.59 lakh-hectare wheat sowing area and a 25 lakh-hectare target this year, farmers had sowed wheat on just 10 lakh hectares till Monday, achieving 40 percent of the target.
Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer from Sirsa’s Kirpal Patti, said that farmers, lacking the quantity of DAP fertiliser they need, had completed hardly 50 percent of wheat sowing in his village.
“It is strange that though the government knows how many acres wheat covers and fixes targets for wheat sowing and also knows farmers need a 50 kg bag of fertiliser for every acre, it has failed to provide the fertiliser required,” he said. “Farmers are being given DAP in a rationed manner while being forced to buy nano-DAP and sulphur they do not need.”
Mann said that the delay in wheat sowing would affect the overall yield of the crop.
Speaking to The Print Tuesday, Dr. Virender Singh Lather, a retired principal scientist with the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, which comes under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), warned that a DAP fertiliser shortage could pose a threat to national food security.
“The ideal time for wheat sowing in Haryana and neighbouring Punjab is from 25 October to 15 November. Any wheat sown after 15 November becomes a late-sowed variety and has lower yield as it gets less time to mature,” said Lather.
The agriculture scientist explained that wheat requires a prolonged winter of 140 days for optimum yield. The crop is ready for harvesting by the advent of April. Wheat harvesting in Haryana usually lasts from 5-25 April.
“If we sow the crop by 15 November, the crop gets 15 days of November, nearly 120 days of December, January, February, and March, and five days of April (in total) to mature and, hence, the grain size is fuller. The lesser the number of days for maturing, the smaller the grain size, and, hence, the yield because once summer commences in April, the grain size does not grow further, making it fit for harvesting,” said Lather.
The yield of wheat in Haryana, he said, is 6 MT (60 quintals) per hectare or 24 quintals per acre under normal circumstances. But, due to the DAP fertiliser shortage, most farmers will be sowing their wheat late, suffering a loss of yield.
Devinder Sharma, an agriculture expert, echoed Lather’s sentiments, saying that scarcity of the DAP fertiliser threatens a national food security risk due to a fall in the yield.
Farmers require one bag, or 50 kg of DAP fertiliser on every acre of land.
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Lather said wheat sowing is usually done across an area of roughly 31.5 million hectares in India, with the country producing 112 million tonnes of wheat in a year on average. DAP is a favourite fertiliser among Indian farmers because it contains nitrogen and phosphorus—the primary macronutrients required for crops and plants.
Lather explained that the data from field experiments conducted by reputed ICAR institutes and state agricultural universities in diverse agro-climatic zones have shown that using the recommended amount of DAP fertiliser—50 kg per acre—increases the yield of crops such as wheat and paddy by 30 percent. The shortage of DAP fertiliser is likely to reduce the yield by one-third in wheat, grams, potato, etc.
The annual increase in the consumption of DAP fertiliser in the country is more than 10 percent. According to the data of the Fertiliser Association of India, in 2021-2022, the production of DAP fertiliser in the country was 42.2 lakh metric tonnes, and the import was 54.6 lakh metric tonnes. The total consumption, however, was 92.7 lakh metric tonnes, with India producing only 45 percent of the total DAP fertiliser consumed.
To ensure food security, the Centre has been allocating subsidies in the Union Budget for producing and importing chemical fertilisers for the last 50 years. However, under international and global pressure, the government has been reducing the subsidy for the last several years, Lather said. Its moves, he added, have forced companies affiliated with the Indian Fertiliser Association to drastically reduce the production and import of chemical fertilisers, with India now facing a DAP fertiliser crisis.
In a press release issued on 30 October, the PIB denied any shortage of DAP fertiliser, adding that the Red Sea crisis has, of late, affected DAP imports. The Red Sea crisis, which constitutes attacks on ships on the route by Yemeni Houthis amid Israel’s war in Gaza, has resulted in the rerouting of ships carrying fertilisers via the Cape of Good Hope. The new route has added a distance of 6,500 km and delayed imports.
The issue of DAP fertiliser shortage came up for discussion during the current winter session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. INLD MLA Aditya Devi Lal and Congress MLAs Aftab Ahmed, Jassi Petwar, and Shishpal Keharwala brought up the issue.
The MLAs highlighted the farmers’ struggles with delayed and inadequate fertiliser supplies, particularly during the critical rabi sowing season.
Aditya Devi Lal noted the lack of timely availability of DAP and urea fertilisers has significantly disrupted agricultural activities, fueling widespread frustration and resentment among farmers.
In response, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini dismissed claims of a DAP fertiliser shortage, insisting on the availability of adequate supplies.
Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda criticised the government for its lack of response to the issue. Hooda emphasised the importance of timely distribution, arguing that fertiliser supplied after the sowing period is ineffective and fails to meet farmers’ needs.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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