Fertilizer production stable; official
The government on Thursday rejected any talk of a decline in urea production in March-April and said production during the period reached 3.74 million tonnes, almost equal to last year’s level despite the West Asia crisis. Apart from this, 37 lakh tonnes of urea has also been imported to meet the shortage before the Kharif season.
Total domestic fertilizer production (which includes DAP, NPKS and others) during March-April stood at 6.23 million tonnes, while imports stood at 1.53 million tonnes.
“Post-crisis domestic production and imports of fertilizers have been as strong as ever…the availability of about 7.8 million tonnes of fertilizers has been increased in response to the crisis,” Aparna S Sharma said at an inter-ministerial briefing on development in West Asia.
He said India produced 1.64 million tonnes of urea in March and 2.1 million tonnes in April, taking the total to 3.74 million tonnes.
The shortage of urea is being met by imports. “We issued a global tender and secured about 3.7 million tonnes of urea to meet the shortfall,” he said.
Domestic production of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) reached 0.48 million tonnes, NPK 1.26 million tonnes and Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 0.74 million tonnes during the March-April period. A global tender for phosphatic fertilizers for 1.9 million tonnes has also been issued, and the availability of fertilizer raw materials is being regularly reviewed at all levels.
“Fertilizer availability remains as strong as ever and supply remains in excess of requirement,” Sharma said.
For Kharif 2026, the existing stock is 19.33 million tonnes, while the requirement is 39.04 million tonnes. This is about 50 percent of the total requirement, he said. Availability of Urea is 7.38 million tonnes, DAP is 2.34 million tonnes, along with good stock of other fertilizers also.
“This reflects better planning, improved stocking and efficient logistics managed by the government. The supply situation across states remains strong,” Sharma said. He said that there has been no change in the maximum retail price (MRP) of fertilizers.
