Shillong, Aug 18 (PTI) The Meghalaya government on Thursday said that chemical fertilizers would be available again in the market for farmers in the state at statutorily fixed prices, an official said. Fertilizers will be made available at statutorily fixed prices (as determined by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers) in a controlled manner, to protect the interests of those farmers using fertilizers, Agriculture department commissioner and secretary, Vijay Kumar said.He said the Meghalaya State Cooperative Marketing and Consumers" Federation Limited (MECOFED) will be lifting the state"s quota of fertilizers from the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) for supply to the farmers at statutorily fixed prices. The Meghalaya Agriculture department had in June 2014 discontinued a scheme for providing fertilizers and provided a long term groundwork for organic farming with an aim to reduce the hazardous effect of chemical fertilizers on human lives and on environment. According to Kumar, despite the stoppage of subsidy in 2014, many farmers continued to use chemical fertilizers like Urea, DAP, MOP and SSP. “The usage of fertilizers is seen as essential for maintaining the higher productivity of crops like potato, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower that are extensively cultivated in the state,” he said. The senior official also said that the 2014 order also resulted in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers not allocating fertilizers for the state and this resulted in black marketing for fertilizers with farmers having to pay two to three times more than the normal regulated price. "Today"s order, however, did not provide subsidies for farmers but certain areas would be notified for controlled use of fertilizers," he said. PTI JOP RG RG