While the government aims to cut urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) consumption by introducing nano-variants, sales and imports of various fertilizers have surged in the current fiscal, trade sources said.
Industry data for April-January, 2025-26 indicate a marginal rise in domestic production of fertilisers at 43.75 million tonne (MT) on year.
What do analysts say?
According to analysts in the current fiscal, the fertiliser import could surge to over 21 MT while total shipments in the first ten months of 2025-26 has been 20.9 MT, an increase of 50% on year. In FY25, the world’s second-largest fertilizer consumer imported 16 MT of soil nutrients.
In terms of sales, over 63 MT of highly subsidised fertiliser has been distributed to farmers in April-January period of 2025-26, which is an increase of 1.5% compared to the same period in FY256.
In the first ten months of the current fiscal, domestic production of urea and DAP declined by 2.7% and 1.6% to 25.1 MT and 3.3 MT respectively.
Sales of urea due to rise in the demand in kharif as well as rabi season rose by 1.9% to over 35 MT in April-January FY26 on year.
Surge in urea imports
Urea imports surged 83% to close to over 8.9 MT in the period while inward shipments of DAP rose close to 40% at 6 MT in April-January, FY26 on year.
NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) fertilizer imports rose by 103% during the April-January 2025-26 to 3.48 MT.
The fertilizer ministry last month had stated that nearly 73% of the country’s requirement of soil nutrients was met through domestic production in 2025.
Domestic production of fertilizers—urea, DAP, NPK and single super phosphate (SSP) — rose to 52.46 MT in 2025 from 50.95 MT in 2024, according to the ministry.