Fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said that the government had cleared Rs22,000 crore in fertiliser subsidies to manufacturers and will pay the remaining Rs12,000 crore by March this year.

He was addressing the media after the conclusion of the first conference of state agriculture ministers.

Paswan said that the department of fertilisers was following up with finance ministry release of Rs6,000 crore of subsidy arrears.

Several state agricultural ministers attended the one-day conference called to discuss issues relating to the fertiliser sector.

The meeting was convened to review the recent buoyant demand for fertiliser products in the country delineating the areas of responsibility between the stakeholders involved in the process of manufacture/import and distribution of fertilisers to farmers.