An artificial shortage of fertilizer has cropped up in some districts with farmers sowing more extent of area than last year to take advantage of the good rains in the State. The scarcity is also attributed to panic buying by them. Expressing concern over this trend, Agriculture Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy asked agriculture officials to ensure proper distribution of fertilizer by fixing weekly and not monthly targets.Interacting with officials, banks and insurance companies through a videoconference on Saturday, the Minister said the situation was expected to ease shortly as the Centre had allotted another 60,000 tonnes of fertilizer to the State in addition to 36.5 lakh tonnes for kharif season. Mr. Reddy announced that the last date for remittance of premium by non-loanees under the crop insurance scheme had been extended up to September 15.

Published Date : August 29, Sunday 04:50PM IST

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