With the Kharif season in full swing, the Odisha government has sent a blunt message to fertilizer dealers: divert stock, overcharge farmers or hoard supplies, and the licence will not survive the raid.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment and Energy, Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, has ordered a zero-tolerance campaign against black marketing, hoarding and the sale of substandard fertilizer. Officials say the aim is simple — keep chemical fertilizers available at authorised shops and at controlled prices so cultivators are not forced into the grey market.
The numbers released on Tuesday show how far the drive has already gone this financial year. Enforcement teams have raided 11,684 fertilizer shops across the state. Show-cause notices have gone to 2,774 persons. Sales by 321 dealers have been temporarily stopped. Licences of 170 dealers have been suspended and 96 licences cancelled. Stocks of 12 erring dealers have been seized, and criminal cases registered against seven.
That is a sharp step-up from last year. In 2025–26, officials inspected 9,017 shops, issued 2,373 show-cause notices, halted sales at 48 outlets, and suspended or revoked 53 licences. Fifteen stock seizures and nine criminal cases followed.
Flying squads on the ground
District- and block-level Enforcement Squads have been formed for the season. Inspection teams and flying squads drawn from the Revenue, Agriculture and Police departments are conducting regular checks at wholesale and retail points on the orders of Commissioner-cum-Secretary Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav.
Action is being taken under the Fertilizer Control Order, 1985 and the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Officials say irregularities are not being parked for later files: stop-sale orders, licence suspension and seizure are being used on the spot.
One of the more visible operations came on August 29 in Baliguda sub-division of Kandhamal district. A joint team of the tahasildar, agriculture officials and police raided Maa Sabitri Agro Agency, seized 700 bags of DAP, cancelled the shop’s licence and registered a criminal case. The investigation is continuing.
In Boudh’s Manamunda block, raids have been underway for two days on the basis of multiple complaints. Officials are recording statements from farmers at the shops. The Chief District Agriculture Officer has said the department will act if black marketing or other irregularities are established.
“No cause for panic”
The government insists there is no shortage. “Adequate quantity of fertilizers is available at each selling point, and there is no cause for panic,” the official note said. Farmers have been asked to ignore rumours, buy only from authorised dealers and pay only the controlled price.
The political line from Krushi Bhavan is that regulation, not rationing by rumour, will decide this Kharif. Singh Deo’s brief to the field is that diversion and hoarding will not be treated as a routine trade offence. For dealers, the arithmetic is now public: more raids than last year, more notices, more cancelled licences.
Whether that pressure keeps prices honest through the rest of the season will be judged in village shops, not in press notes. For now, the state is betting that visible enforcement — and a stocked warehouse behind every authorised counter — will keep fertilizer in the farmer’s field instead of the black market.
