[Answered] The current costs of fertilizers in India are unsustainably high to bear for a mineral resource-poor country. Discuss and suggest ways to reduce the burden of fertilizers on the Indian economy.

Fertilizers play a huge role in maintaining the fertility of farms for increasing outputs. India depends heavily on imports for its fertilizer requirements. In 2021-22, in value terms, imports of all fertilisers touched an all-time high of $12.77 billion. The total value of fertiliser imports by India, inclusive of inputs used in domestic production, was a huge $24.3 billion in 2021-22.

Reasons of high costs of fertilizers:

• Fertilisers are not only imported, but Indian farmers also pay below what it costs to import or manufacture using imported inputs. The difference is paid as a subsidy by the government.
• Costlier raw material: Rock phosphate is the key raw material for DAP (diammonium phosphate) and NPK fertilisersand India is 90 percent dependent on imports for them.
• Lack of natural resources:In case of urea, primary feedstock is natural gas which is not enough available in the country. As per the petroleum ministry’s data, the fertiliser sector’s share in the consumption of re-gasified LNG was over 41 per cent.
• Increase in price of oil in international marketalso adversely impacts the fertilizer costs.

The following ways can reduce the burden of fertilizers on the Indian economy:

• To cap or reduce consumption of high-analysis fertilisers: particularly urea, DAP and MOP (Muriate of potash). For this, incorporate urease and nitrification inhibition compounds in urea. By this, more nitrogen is made available to the crop, enabling farmers to harvest the crop with a lesser number of urea bags.
• Promote use of liquid “nano urea”: Their ultra-small particle size is favourable to easier absorption by the plants than with bulk fertilisers, translating into higher nitrogen use efficiency.
• DAP use should be restricted mainly to paddy and wheat; other crops don’t require fertilisers with high P content.
• Popularise high nutrient use-efficient water-soluble fertilisers (potassium nitrate, potassium sulphate, calcium nitrate, etc) and encourage alternative indigenous sources like potash derived from seaweed extract etc.
• Promote sales of Single Super Phosphate (SSP) (containing 16 percent P and 11 percent S) and complex fertilisers such as “20:20:0:13” and “10:26:26”.

India should pay attention to improving fertilizer efficiency through need-based use and increase investment in new fertilizer plants. The need of the hour is that agriculture departments and universities not just revisit their existing crop-wise nutrient application recommendations, but also propagate this information to farmers on a campaign mode.