Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan speaks in the Lok Sabha during the second part of the budget session of Parliament in New Delhi. Photo: Sansad TV/ANI Video Grab
Assessing the impact of the war in West Asia on India’s agriculture sector, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday (March 25, 2026) asked officials to ensure fair and uninterrupted supply of fertilisers. He directed the officials to speed up the work on ‘Farmer ID’ to make the fertilizer distribution system transparent.
Mr. Chouhan will meet the Chief Ministers and Agriculture Ministers of the states after the completion of the project. The government is targeting to provide digital IDs to 11 million farmers by 2026-27 and as of November 2025, over 7.63 million IDs have been generated, including 1.93 million IDs for women farmers.
In a statement, the agriculture ministry said the primary objective of the meeting was to protect the interests of India’s agriculture sector and its farmers amid the current global instability while ensuring strategic preparedness for the upcoming kharif season. The minister asked the officers to play a proactive role in times of crisis.
The minister issued directions to crack down on those involved in black marketing of fertilizers and seeds and taking advantage of the global crisis. The meeting also reviewed the availability of agrochemicals and essential gases required for seed drying. To ensure that there is no shortage of packaging materials, especially for milk and agricultural products, Mr. Chouhan said the ministry has issued guidelines to coordinate with the petroleum ministry and other relevant departments.
The meeting issued guidelines on how to crack down on those involved in the black market in fertilizers and seeds and take advantage of the global crisis. The meeting reviewed the availability of agrochemicals and essential gases required for seed drying. To avoid shortage of packaging materials, especially for milk and other agricultural products, Mr. Chouhan said the ministry has issued guidelines to coordinate with the petroleum ministry and other relevant departments. The Ministry has set up a ‘Special Cell’ for continuous monitoring of the agricultural sector. “This cell will submit a weekly report on the availability of fertilizers, seeds and pesticides to the Union Agriculture Minister,” the ministry added.
Earlier, the Fertilizer Ministry had claimed that it had sufficient stocks of fertilizers for the kharif season. The ministry said there are stocks of 62 million tonnes of urea, 25 million tonnes of ammonium phosphate and 56 million tonnes of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers for the kharif season. The ministry said the stock of fertilizers was higher than in the same period last year.
Published – 25 March 2026 22:48 IST
