Government eyes 'zero import' after record urea output

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday set the target of 'zero import' of urea in the next three-four years as India recorded highest-ever production of fertilizer at 245 lakh tonnes during 2015-16. This is likely to reduce the import of the fertiliser by about 20 lakh tonnes, thereby saving at least Rs 4,000 crore for the government.

"We need about 310 lakh tonnes of urea annually and to meet this demand we import about 80 lakh tonnes. It will reduce to 60-65 lakh tonnes this year. Now the target should be how we can become self sufficient in the next three years and may even reach a level of production to export it," fertilizer minister Ananth Kumar said while announcing the achievement.

Earlier in the day, PM Narendra Modi had said at a gathering in Belgium that unlike the past, this year he did not get any letter from chief ministers complaining about the shortage of urea. "There was no instance of using police force for distributing urea to farmers," Modi said. Even agriculture minister Radhamohan Singh said that his office is also not receiving any complaint from the states.

Ananth Kumar said the remarkable achievement in domestic urea production happened in the last nine months after the government took a series of policy decisions. He said the increased production is equivalent to production capacity of almost two new urea plants without any additional investment.