: Opinion: A huge fertilizers crunch is looming #IndiaNEWS #News By Dr Ranjith Reddy Fertilizer is a magic wand for the farmer to push his productivity and production but could be a sceptre for the

Opinion: A huge fertilizers crunch is looming #IndiaNEWS #News
By Dr Ranjith Reddy
Fertilizer is a magic wand for the farmer to push his productivity and production but could be a sceptre for the government for it has to procure the produce for distribution under the national food security scheme, for exports, etc. It is the same ‘magic wand’, which helped the country sail through ship-to-mouth to the present overflowing granaries. But imagine what would be the fate of our farmers if this ‘magic wand’ is broken and what would be the position of the Indian government if it fails to supply fertilizers to farmers in time. It appears, with the Russia-Ukraine war, fertilizer crunch is looming large on India, since we import maximum fertilizers from countries like Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
There is no doubt that fertilizer availability during the rabi season remained comfortable. It was comfortable since there was no conflict between Russia and Ukraine, geopolitical situation was cool and there were no supply-chain disruptions. But now that the conflict is on even after nearly two months and there are supply chain disruptions at the Black Sea, farmers are worried about the ensuing kharif season.
Import Dependent
The conflict has turned the plans of the government topsy-turvy since Russia is the world’s second largest exporter of Muriate of Potash (MOP). We import one-third of MOP from Belarus and Russia. Ukraine is the third largest supplier of urea to India.
But the more worrying fact is that the government of India (GoI) is showing laxity in entering into tie-ups with other countries for supplies and showing little interest in pushing domestic production to make good the loss it may suffer in getting fertilizers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, etc. Not just this, we also need to see how the GoI insulates farmers from unrelenting global prices of urea, natural gas, Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP), MOP, etc, since allocation for fertilizer subsidy for 2022-23 is just Rs 1 lakh crore, which is not even 50% of the cost estimates by experts.
Of the 356. 53 lakh tonnes of urea requirement in 2021-22, India imported 98. 3 lakh tonnes (highest-ever). For 2022-23, we need nearly 370 lakh tonnes given the expected good South-West monsoon and addition in crop sowing. But domestic production is not picking up. (See graph). There is a gap of 125 lakh tonnes. Ramagundam, with 12. 7 lakh tonne per annum capacity of urea, was to start production by 2018 as promised by the Prime Minister but has missed many deadlines, including June 2021. Other units, such as Sindri, Talcher, Gorakhpur, Barauni, are all sluggish in revival, indicating the commitment of the GoI on ‘Atmanirbhartha’.

Latest stock market news Twitter alternate of India

10% popularity Flash it Bury this