Funds crunch hits Odisha government's marketing federation for fertiliser supply

At a time when demand for fertilisers are picking up, the apex cooperative body is struggling to pay outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 40 crore to IFFCO.
A farmer sprinkling fertiliser on his land
A farmer sprinkling fertiliser on his land

BHUBANESWAR: Even as farmers of coastal districts are facing shortage of fertilisers especially NPK complex, fund constraint has hit Odisha State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED) for timely supply of the soil nutrients.

At a time when demand for fertilisers are picking up, the apex cooperative body is struggling to pay outstanding dues to the tune of Rs  40 crore to Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO).

The State Government has created a corpus of Rs  100 crore to extend financial support to MARKFED and Odisha Agro Industries Corporation at a ratio of 75:25 for supply of fertilisers to the farmers through identified dealers.

The primary business of MARKFED is distribution of chemical fertiliser to farmers through the cooperative societies and private dealers having valid license in the State. The Government has released only Rs  37.5 crore to MARKFED as against Rs 75 crore for procurement and distribution of fertilisers.

"Even after repeated reminders, the Finance department is not releasing the balance amount. The Government seems to facing acute financial crisis due to COVID-19 situation," sources familiar with the development said.

There is an urgent need to increase the corpus as the financial support provided by the Government is too small. The demand for fertilisers are increasing every year. MARKFED has limited resources to mobilise fund to meet the financial obligations of fertiliser companies in time, said sources in the apex cooperative society.

The Government is not happy with the performance of Agro Industries Corporation in fertilisers supply to the farmers. Moves are on to scale down the financial support to the corporation from Rs  25 crore to Rs  10 crore.

The Economic Finance Committee of the Government is going to meet shortly to take a decision to change the funding ratio from 75:25 to 90:10, the sources added. The other problem faced by MARKFED is that a majority of primary agriculture cooperative societies in coastal districts have not registered with the cooperative body for trading fertilisers.

The two Government agencies traded only 30 per cent of the total fertiliser requirement of the State while 70 per cent of the demand are met by private traders.

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