Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11 -- As the erratic rainfall continues to pile up worries for the farmers in the State, shortage of Urea has now dealt a double whammy to the farming community already reeling under Covid crisis. The situation has become so severe that it has now affected the growth of transplanted saplings in several areas of the State posing serious risk of crop losses at a massive scale.

OTV ground report from various parts of the State shows how dealers have been accused of selling fertilisers at inflated prices due to lack of administrative control while Cooperative societies which usually provide fertilisers to farmers expressed helplessness to provide the same due to erratic supply.

At many places, farmers have started hitting ...