2 months ago
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Ahead of the kharif play opening by the extremity of this month, Parliament Standing Committee connected Fertilisers, headed by Trinamool Congress MP Azad Kirti Jha, has warned of acute shortages of indispensable fertilizers. Noting astir the ongoing geopolitical tensions successful the West Asia and the consequent pressures connected planetary shipping routes, the Committee, successful a study tabled successful Parliament connected Friday, underlined the request for a “proactive and forward-looking strategy” to safeguard India’s fertilizer proviso chain.
Though the Government has been putting up a brave look by maintaining that the state has capable banal of urea, Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium (NPK) and Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilisers, the Union Fertiliser Department, headed by erstwhile BJP president J.P. Nadda, has been moving with assorted Ministries to guarantee capable supplies by the opening of May crossed the state to conscionable the requirements during kharif season.
Recommending a “Fertiliser Supply Security Fund”, the Parliament sheet observed that India’s dependence connected imports for captious fertiliser inputs remains a large structural vulnerability. On urea, 1 of the astir utilized fertilisers, the sheet noted that its home accumulation of urea stood astatine 306.67 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) successful 2024-25, and imports of astir 85 LMT are projected for 2026-27, entailing a subsidy outgo of ₹91,000 crore (for indigenous urea) and ₹31,999 crore (for Imported Urea) respectively.
The home accumulation meets lone astir 10% of stone phosphate requirements, potash is astir wholly imported, and Sulphur besides has constricted home availability. “This near-total import dependence exposes the country’s fertiliser proviso concatenation to the afloat brunt of geopolitical disruptions, planetary commodity terms volatility, and overseas speech risks. In particular, the ongoing geopolitical tensions successful the Middle East and the consequent pressures connected planetary shipping routes underline the request for a proactive and forward-looking strategy to safeguard India’s fertiliser proviso chain,” it said.
The sheet flagged “acute shortage” of DAP during caller seasons, which necessitated a peculiar further enactment bundle of ₹ 3,500 per MT implicit and supra the nutrient based subsidy for DAP and cited it arsenic a stark illustration of this vulnerability. Urging the Government to not hold for a situation to trigger corrective action, it mooted a “Fertiliser Supply Security Fund.” Though the import stock of urea has decreased from 28.5% successful 2020–21 to 15.5% successful 2024–25, the sheet said accumulation has remained stagnant astatine astir 305–315 LMT against a depletion of astir 390–400 LMT, resulting successful continued important import volumes.
The Department of Fertilisers reported a 36.5% year-on-year surge successful wide fertiliser reserves, rising from 129.85 LMT connected March 6, 2025, to 177.31 LMT arsenic of now. “This formidable buffer is driven by unprecedented summation successful captious ungraded nutrients, astir notably DAP stocks (now astatine 25.13 LMT) and emergence successful NPKs reserves (reaching 55.87 LMT). Furthermore, the availability of Urea—the country’s astir wide consumed fertilizer—has besides grown to scope 59.30 LMT,” the Ministry said.
However, aft a high-level meeting, the Government decided to supply astatine slightest 70% of the mean earthy state depletion to fertiliser manufacturers based connected the past six months. “This measurement aims to safeguard fertiliser accumulation against planetary proviso concatenation disruptions, peculiarly the LNG proviso issues caused by the ongoing struggle successful the Middle East,” the Department said.
