Telangana government alleges the Centre has under-supplied urea by over 300,000 tonnes, triggering a major political confrontation.
Farmers are facing long queues and limited availability, with dealers citing skewed pricing, transport costs, and pressure from fertiliser companies.
Acreage under paddy, maize and cotton has risen sharply this kharif season, fuelling demand and straining supply.
Experts warn overuse of subsidised urea is harming crops, while officials push nano urea and balanced fertilisers as alternatives.
Long queues of farmers outside fertiliser outlets across Telangana, desperate to secure urea for their crops, have turned a supply issue into a major political flashpoint between the state and central governments.
The Indian National Congress-led Telangana government has claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre has supplied only 518,000 metric tonnes of urea so far, compared with the 830,000 metric tonnes it was due by August. This is 312,000 metric tonnes short of the 980,000 metric tonnes promised for the April-September period.
A letter from the state agriculture department to BJP state president N Ramchander Rao pointed out that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao had met Union ministers on this issue.
Rao, however, dismissed allegations of under-supply and accused the state government of diverting urea stocks. He has demanded either a state-led investigation or a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
Under the allocation system, urea received by the state is first sent to MARKFED godowns before being distributed to Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS), Agro Rythu Seva Kendras and Hyderabad Agricultural Co-operative Association branches. Fertiliser is split between these centres and private dealers in a 60:40 ratio.
Agriculture officials allege that many farmers tend to buy excessive quantities once shortages emerge. “Farmers see leaves turning greener and assume the crop is healthier. But applying six to seven bags, when two bags of 45 kilogramme are sufficient per acre of paddy, makes plants more susceptible to stem borer attacks,” a mandal-level officer said.
Urea, priced at a heavily subsidised Rs 267 a bag, supplies nitrogen but overuse can weaken plants. By contrast, potash costs Rs 1,750 per bag but improves plant strength, flowering and yield. Complex fertilisers containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur are recommended, but they are costlier, the officer explained.
Officials also highlight that fertiliser dealers are pressured by companies to buy other products alongside urea. This pressure is pushed down the chain to smaller dealers and ultimately to farmers.
Farmers such as G Anil Reddy and G. Ravinder Reddy from Cherlaboothkur village in Karimnagar district said they had managed to secure urea through PACS outlets, but it was no longer freely available as in the past. “It is seldom available in private shops these days,” they said. With regular urea in short supply, officials are urging the adoption of nano urea, though scepticism remains. “People are not convinced about it yet. I have to try it now as urea is in short supply,” said Ravinder Reddy.
S Anvesh Reddy, chairman of the Telangana State Seeds Corporation and Kisan Congress leader, said the state had already been forced to use buffer stocks of 700,000 tonnes at the start of the kharif season. “The Centre is not giving enough stocks. Urea use has to be reduced gradually. Per-acre usage is lower, but overall acreage has increased sharply,” he said.
Figures underline the growing demand. In the current kharif season, paddy has been sown on 4,520,974 acres compared with 3,160,699 acres on the same date last year, a 72.36 per cent increase over the seasonal norm as of August 13, 2025. The normal area for the season is 6,247,868 acres.
Maize has been planted on 596,892 acres, more than the 421,310 acres last year and exceeding the seasonal normal of 521,206 acres. Cotton is under cultivation on 4,463,517 acres, up from 4,207,414 acres last year, though slightly below the seasonal norm of 4,893,016 acres.
Officials say the shortage may not be as severe in the rabi season, when cotton is not sown and paddy and maize acreage also falls. Plans are also being discussed to restrict fertiliser distribution to fixed quantities based on land ownership, in an effort to curb overuse.
Dealers argue that skewed pricing is also to blame. A dealer from Wyra in Khammam district pointed out: “Urea rates have not been increased for 30 years. Subsidy is given only for urea; if extended to potash too, the prices of complex fertilisers would fall. At present only urea and diammonium phosphate prices are regulated and both are in short supply at different times. Some urea is diverted for commercial products.”
He pointed out that dealers like him can’t sell urea at Rs 267 as companies don’t deliver it to their doorsteps. “The Centre covers transport costs for the companies, but the charges are still passed down to dealers. By the time we add labour and handling, a bag costs Rs 300 in areas further from godowns.”
He added that nano urea, costing Rs 225 per half-litre, is sufficient for one acre and more effective because it is easily absorbed. It can also be sprayed with pesticides, but awareness is low and government officials should hold demonstrations on usage of nano urea, the dealer said. POS (point-of-sale) machines requiring biometric authentication of farmers are not consistently used, leading to gaps in sales data and misreporting to higher authorities.
An office-bearer of the Telangana Agri Input Fertilisers Pesticides Seeds Dealers Association, speaking on condition of anonymity, said panic buying was compounding shortages. He added that the subsidy payment system — where companies receive reimbursement only after farmers’ purchases are authenticated — had raised costs for dealers.
“We are forced to hire people to enter farmers’ details, including soil health data. Companies get the subsidy once authentication succeeds, but we bear the costs. We are supposed to receive Rs 50 per tonne sold but this has not been implemented. The All India Agri Input Dealers Association wrote to the government but has received no response,” he said.
Sarampally Malla Reddy, vice-president of the All India Kisan Sabha, Telangana, attributed the shortage to the central government’s attempts to rein in fertiliser subsidies. “The reductions are across the board,” he said.
The numbers bear this out. The subsidy for all fertilisers was Rs 2,51,339 crore in 2022-23, falling to Rs 1,85,292 crore in 2023-24, Rs 1,71,299 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 1,67,887 crore in 2025-26. Urea subsidies specifically dropped from Rs 1,23,092 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 1,19,000 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 1,18,900 crore in 2025-26.
With demand soaring, supplies constrained and political blame games intensifying, Telangana’s farmers remain caught in the middle.