There is rampant poppy plantation carried out in the hill districts and urea is the main requisite for the fast growth of the plant. It has been alleged that loads of urea are siphoned off to the hill districts to grow poppy.
TFM EXCLUSIVE Report
A 20-year-old farmer, Huidrom Vivekanta left his house located at Huidrom Makha Leikai, Imphal East to procure two bags of fertilizer on August 11 last. He started out from his residence after midnight at around 1 am with his friend Rody to get into a queue for fertilizer. They rode their scooter to the place, where farmers were already lined up but met with a tragic accident on the way. Vivekanta died on the spot, his 18-year-old friend Rody is still under intensive care.
Sanajaobi, the mother of Vivekanta, told TFM, “I lost my son for two bags of fertilizer.” Farmers have been complaining about the scarcity of fertilizer and the manner in which bags of fertilizers are being distributed. Vivekanta’s elder brother Abung had already stood in the queue from 9 pm of the previous day in front of the government warehouse located in Imphal East’s Porompat area to get some bags. As only three bags were offered per hectare to a farmer, Abung had called his brother to join the queue to get two more bags of urea.
Abung said, “I left at around 9 pm with some food and blankets to stand in the queue, there were some 130/140 people ahead of me, some had been waiting since 3 pm, I called up my younger brother after midnight. My last conversation over the phone with him was that he said he was on the way. After 1.30 am, I learned of the accident,” he said. The government warehouse opens during office hours and farmers have to wait for more than 24 hours in line to procure fertilizer.
The Huidrom family does not own land but works in the paddy field for the owner. They are daily wage earners and work odds and ends to get by. They did not get the fertilizer that day. The family poignantly asked why farmers have to toil to get urea, wait day and night for a few bags.
Vivekanta left behind an eight-year-old son. His 19-year-old widow, Puspa holding her son said, “I gave him (Vivekanta) Rs 380 that I had saved up for getting the bags, he died, I don’t know what I will do now.”
The faulty distribution process
To get easy access to urea, one needs permission from the agriculture minister, Oinam Lukhoi Singh and a forwarding letter from the local MLA. The Agriculture Directorate at Sanjenthong is thronged by individuals holding letters of MLA and other VIPs asking for a bulk quota. The ‘request’ from the MLAs may amount to a thousand bags of urea and more.
Till August 7 last, MLAs of the state have purchased 93,511 bags and distributed them to their constituencies. The manner of distribution is done by the MLA and close workers; there are 60 assembly constituencies in Manipur. The manner of distribution and to whom fertilizer was distributed is still unclear — the paperwork of whom the MLAs have given the urea to has still to reach the Agriculture Directorate. Many farmers complain of political influence and that the distribution process is not fair.
Many civil organisations of the state also demand fertilizer from the directorate in the name of the distribution. Till date, some organisations, including renowned ones, have taken 10,330 bags of urea and counting. Out of a total of 3,19,000 bags that have reached the state for the Kharif crop, MLAs and civil organisations have purchased and distributed 1,03,841 bags to farmers. The Agriculture department with its distribution in the valley district warehouses has been able to distribute only 88,900 bags till August 7 last.
Director of Agriculture Kh Lalmani Singh told TFM that there is a need for a centralised distribution system and the department is working with district magistrates to facilitate the supply of fertilizer to the farmers. He said that out of the state’s total urea allocation for this monsoon, a total of 3,19,000 bags have reached the state. The department has distributed 1,92,741 bags to the farmers. The data suggest that approximately 1,26,259 bags are still with the Agriculture department. However, farmers are still left high and dry.
Where have the Urea bags gone? Have they been diverted for poppy plantation?
Urea is a state-controlled essential commodity and cannot be sold by private parties, it is a punishable offense. Mutum Churamani, the president of LOUSAL (Loumee Shinmee Apun Lup), a farmers’ society, told TFM. He himself had purchased a bag of urea costing approximately Rs 270 at Rs 800 in the thriving black market.
He pointed out that paddy cultivation is done in the valley districts during the monsoon. The hill districts with the jhum cultivation season over have no need for urea, as far as the farming season and process. He pointed out that there is rampant poppy plantation carried out in the hill districts and urea is one of the main requisites for the fast growth of the plant.
It may be mentioned that the police department has been able to destroy 1,420 acres of poppy cultivation in the hill districts during 2020-2021 as per chief minister N Biren Singh’s tweet in January last. Biren himself consigned to flames pre-trial drugs, including opium, brown sugar, heroin, kept in the police malkhana worth around Rs 34 crore in the same month itself as part of the ‘War on Drugs’ policy.
Mutum Churamani argued that loads of urea are siphoned off to the hill districts to grow poppy. He said that the valley has roughly an area of 1 lakh plus hectares out of the total 1,95,000 hectares of arable land of the state. “So, if we get three bags of urea per hectare, we need around 3 lakh bags only, total allotment for the state is 4,40,000 bags. We have a surplus of more than 1,40,000 bags. Why are we having a hard time getting urea? Farmers are not getting fertilizer but the drug cartels are getting it,” he said, adding the government’s war on drugs stance is farcical.
The LOUSAL in a press release issued by the publicity secretary Pukhrambam Inaobi had demanded that an inquiry committee should be instituted at the upcoming Assembly Session and the report should be made public. Based on the report, the government should make necessary arrangements for a more farmer-friendly urea distribution. It was also demanded that the government should announce how many acres are under poppy cultivation in the hills.
Urea is also smuggled into Myanmar and sold at costs of nearly Rs 1,800 per bag. Urea nitrate is also used to make improvised explosive devices. Besides, it is also used to ferment liquor, used as a fast-growth food for fish farms etc. Hence it has a wide clientele in the black market.
Fertilizer ministry for transparency but…
Allocation of fertilizer is done through the ministry of fertilizer and to ensure transparency, the ministry insists on cashless transactions, from account to account, through Quick Response (QR) code payment system. The ministry also provides machines for the PoS (Point of Sale) for the Agriculture department so as to facilitate sale transparency and to reach the grassroots beneficiaries. The subsidy can also be claimed by the state government from the ministry with this process.
A source from the Agriculture department pointed out that the Manipur government was intimated from the ministry that sales should be conducted cashless as much as possible. The intimation reached the chief minister and the chief secretary. However, the maximum of the transactions is done through cash only. The politicians and the civil organizations are buying the urea with their own money. The reason for the failure according to the source is that the PoS machines came in July when the distribution had already started and the passwords and usernames for the machines came later in August and hence were unable to enter the electronic data.
The procurement of Urea for Manipur is sourced from plants like Indian Potash Ltd, DVFCL Assam and IFFCO of UP. A bag of Urea is purchased at Rs 183 without the cost of transport. The transport comes in train bogies called ‘racks’, each rack has 58,000 bags of urea. Manipur has been allotted seven racks for the Kharif season which amounts to approximately 4,06,000 bags. As per information from the Agriculture department, five and a half racks have reached Manipur and 87,000 bags are pending which is roughly one and half rack. The cost of one rack is around Rs 1,05,00,000 and with transport from Jiribam to Imphal comes to approximately Rs 2 crore per rack.
A high ranking official told TFM that there are about 50,000 bags, which are lying undistributed as the packaging is very flimsy and easy break during unloading. It would be repackaged soon and distributed. To grasp the plight of farmers and the fertilizer distribution process in Manipur, a 20-member the team headed by Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizer is reaching Manipur on August 25.
This ground report is published in collaboration with The Wire
ALSO READ: https://thewire.in/agriculture/manipur-farmer-death-fertiliser-shortage