At a time when sowing for kharif crops has begun, availability of DAP, a critical input, is abundant but few growers are willing to buy the fertiliser.
The reason is the stuck-up subsidy of Rs14bn on the sale of DAP (diammonium phosphate) provided in the budget 2014-2015. No one in the finance ministry has so far spelled out how it will reach its beneficiaries.
If the purpose is to prevent the subsidy from falling in the hands of middlemen, it is a positive approach. Since nobody is certain how it will be distributed and be affected, the industry has put the bulk of fertiliser in the godowns, and farmers are reluctant to buy it on a pre-subsidised price. So, DAP sales dropped to 52,000 tonnes in June 2014, the lowest kharif season sale after 2010 when only 45,000 tonnes was transacted.
