India’s production of fertilizers has witnessed phenomenal growth during post independence pe­riod from a mere 1.50 lakh tons in 1960-61 to 15.41 million tons in 2004-2005 exhibiting more than 103 times growth during the last 45 years.

During this period the production of nitrogenous fertilizers increased from 98,000 tons to 11,338 thousand tons (growth by 116 times), while the production of phosphate fertilizers has risen from 52.000 tons to 4,067,000 tons (growth by 78 times). At present only nitrogenous and phosphate fertilizers are produced in the country, the former accounting for about 74 percent of the total production of fertilizers in the country.

Amongst the nitrog­enous fertilizers urea, ammonium sulphate, calcium ammonium nitrate, ammonium chloride and ammo­nium phosphate N content are important. Similarly phosphatic fertilizers include superphosphate, nitro- phosphate, urea ammonium phosphate, complex NPK and diammonium phosphate. Urea, ammonium sul­phate, superphosphate and calcium ammonium ni­trate together account for 80 per cent of the total installed capacity and production of fertilizers in the country.

The public sector contributes about 55 per cent of the nitrogenous and 45 per cent of the phosphate fertilizers production, the balance com­ing from the co-operative and private sectors.

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As far as the ‘N’ is concerned, urea has remained the most vital fertilizer providing about 85 per cent of the total requirement of N in the country. As regards P, diammonium phosphate (DAP) has been providing 60-65 per cent of total P205 require­ment. Although the consumption of these two major nutrients has been steadily going up, reaching the present level of 60 kg/hectare of N and 21 kg/hectare of P205, this level is still far behind in comparison to other developing countries (180-500 kg in Korea, Egypt, Isreal and Belgium etc.). Table 22.IV depicts the trends in the production, consumption and im­port of fertilizers in the country.

Even assuming a modest growth rate of 3 per cent annually in the consumption of ‘N\ the total requirement of ‘N’ would go up to 14 million tons by 2005 and 16 million tons by 2010 from the current level of 12 million tons. As against this projected requirement, the additional capacity that is likely to mature by 2005 out of the proposals being implemented/considered could be about two million tons, leaving a wide gap to be filled in through imports. It would be of relevance to consider addi­tional domestic capacities in the order of 2-3 million tons of ‘N’ to avoid the vagaries of the interna­tional market scenario.

As regards the DAP that provides 65 per cent of the total requirement of P205 nutrient, the present demand of four million tons of P205 would defi­nitely go up by one million tons by 2005 and by another one million tons by. 2010. Since the raw materials of DAP are imported it would be prudent to tie up as many joint ventures as possible to ensure the easy supply of P205. India is presently the fourth largest consumer of nitrogenous fertilizers in the world.

Imports

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During eighties India imported about half of its requirement of fertilizers from abroad. But due to the indigenous growth of the fertilizer industry the volume of import has declined substantially during recent years. During 2004-05 about 15, percent of the total requirement of fertilizers was met through import. About 71% of this import is in the form of potassic fertilizers whose requirements are exclu­sively met through foreign supply. India meets its needs of fertilizers through imports from EEC, East European countries, Russia, Japan, USA and Canada. During 1999-2000 India imported Rs. 5,560 crore worth of fertilizers from abroad (cf. Rs. 1,736 crore in 2002-03).

Prospects

Considering the increasing use of fertilizers in the agriculture the demand for fertilizers is bound to increase in the near future. This exhibits bright future for fertilizer industry. But also there is a need to popularise the use of balanced fertilizers, search for new sources of raw materials, cutting down the energy consumption, bring down the cost of produc­tion, modernise old plants, adopt computerised auto­mation technology in the industry, formulate scien­tific pricing system and national fertilizer policy. The industry has to meet the safety and environmen­tal standards and steps should to taken to popularise the use of such fertilizers which are eco-friendly and bio-degradable.