Chennai, Aug 10 (IANS): Farmers of kuruvai, or short-term, crops in Tamil Nadu's delta districts have expressed concers over the shortage of urea in several private shops.

While farmers' cooperative societies are very few in number, there are private shops in each village and farmers have a direct connection with the owners.

R. Neelakantan Samy, a farmer in Tiruchi district, told IANS: “For the past 15 days, the fertilizer shop near my home does not have any urea stock, but there is availability at a farmers' cooperative society which is 30 km from my home. Buying urea from there and transporting it to our farmland is not feasible. Urea was available in all the fertilizer shops in the district and we are worried at the shortage of one of the most important fertilizer for our agriculture activities.”

Another important point is that while cooperative societies provide urea only to those farmers who have taken loans from them, urea can be bought from the private shops without any restriction.

Urea is essential in the cultivation of paddy, banana, sugarcane and cotton.

Agriculture department officials told IANS that there is an abundant supply of urea in cooperative societies and that the shortage in the private shops will be examined.

The price of urea has remained constant for the past several years, but the rates of DAP, potash and other fertilizers have increased manifold.