Shafaqna India: When floods wash away everything, farmers usually look ahead to the next season as their only chance to recover. But this year, even that ray of hope is dimming for Punjab’s farmers.
As the time arrives to prepare their fields for rabi sowing, they are facing an acute shortage of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser — an essential input for their crops. Across the state, government procurement centres and cooperative society outlets are struggling to meet demand. Reports of farmers standing in long queues, only to return empty-handed, are pouring in from almost every district.
A standard 50-kg bag of DAP, priced officially at Rs 1,350, is being sold on the black market for as much as Rs 2,000. The shortfall has turned fertiliser distribution into a crisis, pushing farmers already battered by floods into deeper distress.
This problem is not limited to Punjab. In Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, a government procurement centre witnessed chaos just two weeks ago when the DAP stock fell short. Tempers flared, leading to a scuffle that forced the police to intervene with lathi-charges. Several farmers who had come merely to buy fertiliser ended up with injuries instead of DAP bags.
Haryana’s situation is somewhat different but equally troubling. The state government has made it mandatory for farmers to register on the ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ portal before purchasing DAP. This has created an additional layer of hardship — before queuing at fertiliser centres, farmers must first line up at cybercafés to complete their registration. And there too, long waits and system delays are testing their patience.
The issue isn’t that DAP fertiliser is completely unavailable — it’s that supply falls far short of what farmers need. Punjab alone requires about 5.5 lakh tonnes of DAP for the rabi season, but so far, the state has received only 3.5 lakh tonnes. Another 40,000 tonnes are expected next week, while the government has assured that additional consignments will arrive sometime in November. For now, these are only promises, offering little immediate relief.
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Farmer leader Jasbir Singh points out, “Wheat sowing usually ends by the second week of November. Any delay at this stage can reduce the yield.” In other words, even if the fertiliser arrives later, it may come too late to make a real difference for many farmers.
Last year too, Punjab faced a similar problem. Only around 4 lakh tonnes of DAP were supplied during the rabi season, forcing farmers to turn to the black market to meet their needs. The memory of that experience — and the lack of improvement since — has heightened tensions this year.
The shortage, in fact, is not unique to Punjab. It has been worsening nationwide over the past few years. Every sowing season — whether rabi or kharif — brings a new wave of complaints from different states.
In August this year, Karnataka’s agriculture minister M. Chelvarayaswamy wrote to Union chemicals and fertilisers minister J.P. Nadda, stating that the state had received only 4.91 lakh tonnes of DAP for the 2024–25 rabi and kharif seasons, against a demand of 5.85 lakh tonnes. The gap between requirement and supply, seen from Punjab to Karnataka, highlights a systemic problem that continues to hurt India’s farmers year after year.
The government has repeatedly attributed the shortage of DAP fertiliser to export restrictions imposed by China. During the monsoon session of Parliament, ,minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Anupriya Patel informed the House that China had supplied 2.228 million tonnes of DAP to India in 2023–24, but that figure dropped sharply to just 0.847 million tonnes in 2024–25.
To make up for this shortfall, India turned to other suppliers, including Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Jordan. However, these alternative sources have not been able to fully bridge the gap. In July, India signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to import 3.1 million tonnes of DAP annually, and officials claimed the move would stabilise supplies.
