Import of urea may ease by 2025, alternative forms will replace it, says Minister

Source: The post is based on the article “Import of urea may ease by 2025, alternative forms will replace it, says Minister” published in The Hindu on 11th July 2023

What is the News?

The Union Cabinet has approved a Rs 3.70 lakh crore special package of innovative schemes for farmers.

What are the major components of the special package announced for farmers?

There are four components in this package:

First component: Ensuring a subsidy for urea for the next three years. A sum of Rs 3,68,676.7 crore has been committed for urea subsidy from 2022-23 to 2024-25. 

Second component: Prime Minister’s Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) scheme.

Third component: Market Development Assistance(MDA) of ₹1,500 per metric tonne to support marketing of organic fertilizers, produced as a by-product from bio-gas plants/compressed bio-gas (CBG) plants set up under GOBARdhan scheme.

Fourth component: Introduce sulphur coated urea as Urea Gold. This will address sulphur deficiency for the soil in the country and improve our crop productivity.

What was the need for such a special package?

The package had to be brought in as the use of fertilizers has become unbalanced in the country. 

The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium ratio should have been 4:2:1.Instead, it is 8:3:1.Due to this, the balance of the soil has been damaged and production has become saturated.

According to a study, overuse of fertilizers has resulted in a 16% decrease in production in Punjab despite a 10% increase in the use of fertilizers in the State during the same period. This is leading to the deterioration of soil health over a period of time

Hence, it is clear that balanced use of fertilizers is needed for steady production, food security, and for helping farmers too. That’s why, this package has been announced.

What are the steps being taken to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers?

India is not planning to stop the use of chemical fertilizers completely but will be adopting alternate fertilizers. 

For example, instead of urea, we have launched neem-coated urea, sulphur-coated urea, and nano urea, which will reduce the consumption of chemical fertilizers without impacting production. 

The country is moving towards natural farming and organic farming step by step.

These steps will help India reduce its import dependency on urea by 2025.