According to senior officials of the state agriculture production commission, at present the availability of phosphatic fertilisers is more than 100 per cent. ``As against a demand of 6 lakh tonnes, we already have about 6.36 lakh tonnes with more coming in,'' said one official.

However, the scenario is not all that rosy as it is made out to be. Cross mismanagement of inflow and distribution coupled with the two-week long strike by employees of the Pradeshik Cooperative Federation (PCF) has resulted in total chaos. ``There is a glut of fertiliser stocks in districts such as Moradabad, Bareilly, Basti and Varanasi where the supplies reached only after the rabi sowing and the demand was tapering off while in other districtswhere there is still a great demand for fertilisers, acute scarcity still persists,'' confessed an official.

For instance, in districts such as Mathura, Etah and Hathras in the western belt of the state where rabi sowing was delayed due to unseasonal rains, farmers are struggling on account of unavailability of fertilisers. At the same time, the eastern districts have large quantities of unused fertilisers specially DAP lying with them.

Similarly, in the predominantly potato growing districts of Farukkhabad and Kannauj, where the state government stepped in to bail out the farmers and supplied them with large supplies of substitute fertilisers such as NPK and single super phosphate (SSP), late arrivals of DAP stocks are lying unused.

Officials of the Agriculture Production Commission are now busy trying to ensure adequate provision and distribution of urea which will now be the main fertiliser required during the time of cane sowing and the forthcoming kharif season. ``We already have with us around18 lakh tonnes of urea against a total requirement of 27 lakh tonnes so as things stand we should have no problems procuring the remaining quantities of urea'', an official of the agriculture department said.

The farmers had a nightmarish brush with the ``artificial scarcity''in the fertiliser market recently when private dealers made a quick buck selling 50 kg DAP bags at an exorbitant Rs 700, which are normally sold by the government for Rs 419.

The state government officials admit that the present system of distribution of fertilisers is faulty. To begin with, there is no foolproof system of prioritising supplies according to varying agri-climatic conditions which is imperative in a state as large as UP, they maintain. This is because the ideal sowing time for a crop could vary greatly from one region to another and consequently their requirements for fertilisers could also vary accordingly.

Agriculture department officials also attribute the recurrent problems associated with the supply anddistribution of fertilisers like DAP and MOP to the fact that they are largely imported commodities which are largely dependent on the railways for transportation to various parts of the country. ``Sometimes, finding agents to lift supplies from unpopular and far-flung rake points like Ballia and Mirzapur also becomes a problem,'' an official said. Given the scenario, it is strongly felt by officials of the UP agriculture production commission that fertiliser supply and distribution should be brought within the ambit of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

On its part, the state government has already started making efforts to improve distribution by handing over the task to the State Warehousing Corporation (SWC) instead of the PCF which has been holding the government to ransom of late. The decision to this effect has been taken after reviewing the transportation of fertilisers over the recent past, according to state government officials.