Fertiliser consumption likely to rise 10% on higher acreage post bumper rabi harvest

The government expects a steep 10% rise in fertiliser consumption this year as it sees farmers planting more for the next season following a bumper harvest of rabi, or winter-sown, crop.

Sale of farm inputs has already picked momentum with the weather office forecasting a normal monsoon this year. India has seen a normal or above-normal monsoon rains in the last two years.

“For this kharif (summer-sown crop) season, the consumption of fertilisers including urea has been assessed at 35.12 million tonnes as against last year’s assessment of 31.88 million tonnes,” a senior fertiliser ministry official said. “This means the government expects more coverage of crop area as well as production.”


He said the consumption of the most popular crop nutrient, urea, is likely to be 17.75 million tonnes as against last year’s assessment of 16.67 million tonnes.

“The use of other fertilisers including DAP, MOP and NPK is also likely to be higher than last year. While the consumption of DAP has been assessed at 6.51 million tonnes as against last year’s assessment of 5.16 million tonnes, 6.18 million tonnes of NPK is likely to be used as against 5.29 million tonnes,” he said.

The government is focusing big on the farm sector for economic revival amid a severe Covid-19 crisis, which has once again hit the economy hard.

“In 2020, when all sectors were down, only agriculture sector looked up,” said an agriculture ministry official. “We have availability of surplus seeds, fertiliser and our national reservoirs have storage of 20% more water than the average of last 10 years. Conditions are favourable for yet another record output.”

However, higher prices of raw material in the international markets have made non-urea fertilisers dearer. This may lead to an escalation in fertiliser prices in the latter half of kharif season when the old stocks finish.

“The government has directed fertiliser makers to sell non-urea fertilisers like DAP, MoP and NPK at existing rates till the stock ends. Thereafter if prices rise steeply, consumption will fall and so would the production,” said another senior agriculture ministry official.

The country’s largest fertiliser maker, Iffco, has said that farmers would get at least 1.126 million tonnes of fertilisers at the existing rates.

“This is just a fraction of non-urea fertilisers required in this season. Farmers are likely to bear the brunt of price hike once new stocks hit the market,” the official said.