Fertilizer Forum Closes With Resolutions
7 October 2008 The third meeting of the Fertilizer Advisory Forum – attended by State Agriculture Ministers, Members Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers’ committee, state farmers’ and dealers’ representatives, the CEOs of leading fertilizer companies, and senior officials from various Departments and Agencies of the Government of India and State Governments – concluded in India last week.
Among the resolutions adopted by the Forum are:
- The need for soil mapping of the whole country was emphasized, with the provision of issuing soil health cards to each farmer in the country based on which cropping pattern and application of fertilizers can be decided by the farmer.
- Emphasized the need for each State to strengthen their State institutional agencies for marketing and distribution of phosphatic and potassic fertilizers.
- The Forum complemented the Department of Fertilizers over the online web based "Fertilizer Monitoring System (FMS)" , which provides district information on receipt, availability, and sale of various fertilizers in the public domain. The Forum emphasized the need to strengthen the FMS to ensure that the real time information up to the district level is available on a regular basis.
- The Forum resolved that each district in the country having a railway network should be provided with at least one rail rake point in order to streamline movement of fertilizers in all parts of the country.
- The Forum resolved that the closed urea units in the country should be revived in shortest possible time to boost indigenous production of urea in order to achieve self-sufficiency in urea sector.
- To mitigate the limitation of raw materials/inputs within the country for production of fertilizers — especially in Phosphatic and Potassic sector — and control the rising international prices of fertilizer products, it is necessary to acquire global resources to secure future availability of fertilizers in the country. The Forum resolved that effective steps including allocation of funds by the Government be taken for setting up of joint ventures in resource rich countries abroad and entering into long term supply arrangements.
For a complete list of resolutions, please visit http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=43435
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