Government toys with DBT in fertiliser sector

“There are many challenges in introducing the DBT in fertiliser sector as there are 16 crore farm holdings across the country and it has to be ascertained who are the tillers of the land and who are the owners,” Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar said while replying to questions. Kumar said unlike the DBT in LPG and other schemes, it cannot be introduced easily in fertiliser sector. “We will run a pilot project this year and next year and then only we will take up DBT in fertilisers,” he said, adding: “The feasibility of DBT in fertiliser would be ascertained after analysing the result of the pilot.” He said once the pilot is completed in September 2017, the department will evaluate technical and operational challenges and issues and only after the results DBT will be introduced. 

Department of Fertilisers (DoF) will be conducting a pilot in 8 districts in the coming Rabi season (2016-17) and another 8 districts in Kharif season (2017-18) to capture authenticated retailer sales and buyer’s details as a precursor to DBT in fertiliser sector.The identified 8 districts for the pilot DBT in Rabi season are Kishanganj in Bihar, Maldah in West Bengal, Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. Karnala and Kurukshetra in Haryana, Krishna and West Godavai in Andhra Pradesh and Nasik in Maharashtra.