Uttar Pradesh to check illegal trade of seeds, fertiliser

The Uttar Pradesh government has issued directions to check illegal trade of seeds and fertiliser in districts adjoining international border amid reports of smuggling of urea to Nepal.
    
"The district magistrates have been asked to take effective action against smuggling of fertiliser and seeds from districts adjoining international border," state agriculture minister Chaudhary Laxmi Narain said here yesterday.
    
He said the DMs "have been asked to deploy atleast one employee at all government sales centres to overview distribution of fertilisers".
    
Directives had also been issued to take stern action against hoarders and blackmarketeers, he added.
    
Stating that there was sufficient stock of fertilizer in the state, the minister said farmers should buy urea as per their requirement so as to ensure its availability in the
market.
    
"Nearly 5.31lakh mt phosphate, 3.42lakh mt DAP and 1.89 lakh NPK had been received by the state. The state government had requested the Centre to provide 50,000 tonne of DAP and NPK from quota for December month," he said.