Status of Fertilizers In India

India consumed about 500 LMT of fertilizer per year in the last 10 years.

Since non-urea (MoP, DAP, complex) varieties cost higher, many farmers prefer to use more urea than actually needed.

The government has taken a number of measures to reduce urea consumption. It introduced neem-coated urea to reduce illegal diversion of urea for non-agricultural uses.

Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, India’s fertiliser imports increased almost 8% to 20.33 million tonnes from 18.84 million tonnes.

In FY21, more than a fourth of the urea requirement was imported.

Need of Large Quantities of Fertilisers

The agricultural output of India has increased every year, and the country's need for fertilisers has also increased.

That Is Why

India is hoping to end its reliance on imported urea within the next four years, till 2025 by expanding output of a locally developed version known as Liquid Nano Urea.

What Is Liquid Nano Urea

It is urea in the form of a nanoparticle. It is a nutrient (liquid) to provide nitrogen to plants as an alternative to the conventional urea.

Urea is a chemical nitrogen fertiliser, white in colour, which artificially provides nitrogen, a major nutrient required by plants.

It is developed to replace conventional urea and it can curtail the requirement of the same by at least 50%.

It contains 40,000 mg/L of nitrogen in a 500 ml bottle which is equivalent to the impact of nitrogen nutrient provided by one bag of conventional urea

The first Liquid Nano Urea (LNU) plant is inaugurated at Kalol, Gujarat.

Neem Coating of Urea

The Department of Fertilizers (DoF) has made it mandatory for all the domestic producers to produce 100% urea as Neem Coated Urea (NCU).

The Benefits of Use of NCU Are As Under

• Improvement in soil health.
• Reduction in usage of plant protection chemicals.
• Reduction in pest and disease attack.
• An increase in yield of paddy, sugarcane, maize, soybean, Tur/Red Gram.
• Neem coating slows down the rate of dissolution of urea in the soil.
• Negligible diversion towards non-agricultural purposes.

Due to slow release of Nitrogen, Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) of Neem Coated Urea increases resulting in reduced consumption of NCU as compared to normal urea.