Moneycontrol
HomeNewsBusinessEconomyFertiliser sales jump 83% to 111.61 lakh tonnes in April-June: Govt

Fertiliser sales jump 83% to 111.61 lakh tonnes in April-June: Govt

Urea sales increased by 67 per cent to 64.82 lakh tonnes while the demand for DAP jumped two-folds to 22.46 lakh tonnes during the period under review.

July 03, 2020 / 21:22 IST
Story continues below Advertisement

Fertiliser sales jumped 83 per cent in April-June to record 111.61 lakh tonnes despite the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, the government said on Friday. "During April-June 2020, the POS (point of sale) sale of fertilisers to  farmers was 111.61 lakh tonnes which is 82.81 per cent higher than the last year's sale of 61.05 lakh tonnes during the same period," an official statement said.

Urea sales increased by 67 per cent to 64.82 lakh tonnes while the demand for DAP jumped two-folds to 22.46 lakh tonnes during the period under review.

Story continues below Advertisement

Sales of complex fertilisers more than doubled to 24.32 lakh tonnes.

"Despite lot of movement restrictions due to national level COVID-19 lockdown, with the concerted efforts of the Department of Fertilizers, Railways, state governments and ports, production and supply of fertilisers in the country is going on without hindrance," the statement said.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

View more

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
View more
+ Show