A high level fertilizer meeting was convened by Railways to plan for adequate availability of fertilizer for the coming season. From Railways, PCOM/SCR K Siva Prasad, PCCM/SCR, G John Prasad, Executive Director/Railway Board, Manoj Shrivastava, CFTM Nagya, CCM FS Christopher attended the meeting. Telangana state government principal secretary agriculture, Parthasarathy, commissioner agriculture Rahul Bojja, Addl director agriculture, Vijay Kumar attended the meeting. The meeting was also attended by officials from kakinada Port and all the major fertilizer companies like IFFCO, IPL, Zuari, Kribco, NFCL and CFL.
Agenda of the meeting was to plan for the supply and distribution of fertilizer to the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by way of faster evacuation of imported fertilizer from the ports of kakinada, Krishnapatnam, vizag, and gangavaram.
The C.ParthaSarathi, IAS, APC & Principal Secretary to Govt., has stated that the Fertiliser production is continuous but demand is seasonal. The requirement of Urea for Rabi season will be very high and it is proposed to build up adequate buffer stocks during October and November Months.
Distribution of fertiliser is allocated 1.5 lakh MTs. Of urea for October month and he also requested Railway Authorities to provide sufficient number of rake points in time for smooth distribution to the farmers.
He emphasised the need for increasing rake points in Telangana State due to reorganisations of districts from 10 to 33. He has also requested for easing of distribution in times of peak movement and further requested to make some of non-functional rake points like Jammikunta, Mahabubnagar, Zahirababad, Chityala, Vangapalli and Tandur into functional rake points.
In view of the state governments projections of increased irrigation facilities made available to farmers in the coming months, Principal Secy Parthasarathy, requested Railways to increase the rail unloading points in Telangana and the Railways has indicated various additional unloading points that the fertilizer companies can explore. Fertilizer companies have agreed to consider the new unloading points to ensure fertilizer reached the market in the quickest possible time. FTM Nagya impressed upon the fertilizer companies to make use of various railway goods sheds like Tandur, Manthatti, Nagulapalli, and Hasanparti as alternatives to existing busy goods sheds of SanathNagar and Peddapalli.
Agriculture commissioner Rahul Bojja requested the fertilizer companies to place the indents for loading with the Railways immediately for all the stock of fertilizers available in the ports.
Executive Director Railway Board Manoj Shrivastava expressed that such coordination meeting should be held before every cropping season to ensure seamless movement of fertilizer in the states.