Ample urea stocks to meet farmers' needs: Collector

Bhupalapalli: A review meeting was held at the IDCO office with officials from the Revenue, Agriculture, Horticulture, and Cooperative departments to discuss urea supply, sales and related matters, on Monday.

The Collector Rahul Sharma instructed that Mandal Special Officers, task force teams and Divisional Special Officers should conduct field-level monitoring every day, and suggested that urea sales should begin each day from 6:00 AM.

He asked that boards be installed at every stock point showing the opening and closing stock clearly for the public to see.

He directed that additional counters and necessary basic facilities be provided at each sales centre. He said the Cooperative Department currently runs 10 centres in the district and proposals have been sent to set up an additional 22 sales centres.

He explained that urea is currently being sold at 18 centres through ARSK, 27 through DCMS, 12 through HACA, and 327 through retailers. He stated that a buffer stock of 2,967 metric tonnes of urea is available in the district and clarified that farmers need not worry.

He said a total of 10 crops, including paddy and maize, are being cultivated on 126,805 acres in the district.

The Collector directed officials to set up counters so that the urea distribution process is transparent and clearly visible to the public. For any assistance, he suggested calling the control room number set up at the Agriculture Officer’s office: 7893098307.

The meeting was attended by Revenue Additional Collector Ashok Kumar, Agriculture Officer Baburao, Cooperative Officer Valia Nayak, ADA of the Agriculture Department, and Mandal Agriculture Officers.