Ahead of the kharif season beginning by the end of this month, Parliament Standing Committee on Fertilisers, headed by Trinamool Congress MP Azad Kirti Jha, has warned of acute shortages of essential fertilizers. Noting about the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the West Asia and the consequent pressures on international shipping routes, the Committee, in a report tabled in Parliament on Friday, underlined the need for a “proactive and forward-looking strategy” to safeguard India’s fertilizer supply chain.
Though the Government has been putting up a brave face by maintaining that the country has adequate stock of urea, Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium (NPK) and Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilisers, the Union Fertiliser Department, headed by former BJP president J.P. Nadda, has been working with various Ministries to ensure adequate supplies by the beginning of May across the country to meet the requirements during kharif season.
Urea and phosphatic fertilizer supplies ‘remain adequate’ for Kharif season, says Fertilizer Association of India
Recommending a “Fertiliser Supply Security Fund”, the Parliament panel observed that India’s dependence on imports for critical fertiliser inputs remains a major structural vulnerability. On urea, one of the most used fertilisers, the panel noted that its domestic production of urea stood at 306.67 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) in 2024-25, and imports of approximately 85 LMT are projected for 2026-27, entailing a subsidy outgo of ₹91,000 crore (for indigenous urea) and ₹31,999 crore (for Imported Urea) respectively.
