Minister for Agriculture N. Cheluvarayaswamy has appealed to farmers not to panic on availability of fertilizers, particularly urea.

The Minister told reporters in Bengaluru on Thursday that some of the farmers had started queuing up before the fertilizer shops to get the fertilizer stock, which they would require in the next two months though they did not need them.

Referring to this, Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy asked farmers, farmers’ leaders, and elected representatives to be aware of the situation and desist from indulging in advance stocking.

The State needed 6,80,000 tonnes of fertilizers from April to July, of this, 6,55,000 tonnes had already been sold, while another 1,94,000 tonnes was still in stock, he explained.

He blamed that three factors were responsible for the present situation. While the good and early monsoon had resulted in rapid sowing, the Centre had reduced the allocation of urea to the State, and the third factor was the advance stocking of fertilizers by farmers, he said.

While he had written multiple letters to the Centre seeking additional allocation of urea, the officials of his department too were in constant touch with their counterparts. To build up pressure, he had requested Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the Thursday’s Cabinet meeting to write to the Centre seeking additional allocation of urea and also raise this issue during his ongoing Delhi visit, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition blamed the apathy of the Congress government in Karnataka for the farmers being worried about the availability of fertilizers despite good monsoon.