Indian government asks fertilizer industry to focus on SCM

Filed in archive News on March 8, 2006

Indian Government today asked fertilizer industry to strengthen its distribution network so that supplies reach farmers living in the countryside.

"Industry should strengthen its distribution network in order to ensure down the line availability of fertilizers at the farmer's field," Indian Chemical and Fertilizer Mininster Ram Vilas Paswan said at meeting of the Fertilizer Advisory Forum.

He said consumption of fertilizers would increase threefold, if adequate supply is made available to the farmers at the right time.

He also stressed that there should not be hoarding of fertilizers at any level in the supply chain leading to even a temporary shortage.

Paswan asked the fertilizer industry to remain vigilant in order to ensure that no adulteration takes place in the supply chain.

"Industry needs to develop packing and marking standards so that farmers can be sure about the genuineness and quality of products while buying fertilizer," he said.

The minister again clarified that no state-owned fertilizer units would be put on the block for sale, instead they would be revived.

"We are trying to ensure availability of gas for this purpose," he said.

Asking farmers to use micro nutrients, Paswan said they should not use urea just because it was low cost.