By Amit KumarNew Delhi [India], March 22 (ANI): Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said that Centre has enough stock of fertilizers for the upcoming Kharif season and fertilizers will be easily available to farmers across the country.

"The estimated requirement of urea is 179.01 MT while domestic production is 139 lakh MT and 55 lakh MT of urea is already in stock," Mandaviya told ANI.

He said 25 lakh metric tonnes of diammonium phosphate for Kharif season is available with the government.

"Requirement of diammonium phosphate (DAP) for Kharif season is 58 lakh metric ton and domestic production is 20 lakh MT while 25 lakh MT already in stock. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) (NPKS) requirement for Kharif season is 63 lakh MT and production of NPKS is 49 lakh metric ton and 28 lakh MT of NPKS already in stock for Kharif season," he added.

The Union Minister said the initiative of 'one nation one fertilizer' is being implemented under 'Bharat' banner like Bharat Urea, Bharat DAP, Bharat MOP and Bharat NPKS.

Talking about importance of nano urea, Mandaviya said it is more efficient than conventional urea and there are high benefits for farmers such as high crop yield, easy transportation. He said farmers are preferring nano urea.

Mandaviya said that the government has approved nano DAP and its production will begin within six months.He said three plants of nano DAP production will begin by 2026-27 by IFFCO and one plant by CIL. He said one bottle nano DAP is equivalent to 50kg DAP bag and it is expected that 10-12 crore bottles of DAP will be produced by 2026-27.

The minister also said that Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry has set up a special team comprising dedicated officers for regular inspections.

The team 'Fertilizers Flying Squad' has been formed for regular surprise inspections which will check diversion, black marketing, hoarding and supply of sub-standard fertilizers with focus on plywood, resin, ceramic , glue, plywood, resin, crockery, moulding powder, dairy, industrial mining explosives where agriculture grade urea is used instead of industrial grade urea.

Minister said that farmers are provided subsidised urea and on a 45kg of urea bag, the cost borne by the Centre is about Rs 3000 and by farmers Rs 266 only.

Mandaviya said that flying squad surprise inspections have been done on 289 fertilizer or related units in 14 states apart from mixture manufacturing units.FIRs and complaints have been filed over alleged diversion of Urea.

"Many showcause notices have been issued for mismatch in procurement, production and sales data and 66,276 bags of suspected urea were seized from Gujarat, Kerala, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka and 30,000 bags disposed as per FCO guidelines. Of the 250 samples tested, 48 have been tested sub-standard and 32 found with neem oil content. Legal and administrative proceedings have been initiated by the states," he said.

Kharif crops are typically sowed during June-July and harvested in October-November. (ANI)