By Ashok Gulati & Ritika Juneja
December 5 was the 10th anniversary of World Soil Day. Top soils, 2 to 3 centimetres deep, which nature takes 1,000 years to create, are critical, as almost 95% of food being currently produced comes from them. So, “Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor, and Manage” — the theme of this year’s World Soil Day — was most appropriate as our soils are turning deficient of essential minerals needed for their health.
December 4-6 was also when the Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) hosted its annual seminar on sustainable fertiliser and agriculture. More than 1,400 delegates from 20 countries participated. The role of the fertiliser industry is critical in ensuring that our soils are healthy and well-nourished to produce enough food. While high-yielding seeds of various crops are catalysts of change in agriculture, they cannot deliver high productivity without supplemental nutrients which are provided by the fertiliser industry.
Let us now turn to Indian soils and the role of the fertiliser industry. The status of Indian soils in 2024 tells us that less than 5% have high or sufficient nitrogen (N), 40% have sufficient phosphate (P), 32% have sufficient potash (K), and only 20% have sufficient organic carbon. On top of this, our soils also suffer from a deficiency of micronutrients like sulphur, iron, zinc, boron, etc., and this deficiency ranges from moderate to severe. It is no wonder that the Indian fertiliser industry has an enormous job to do. It is heartening to see that India is a net exporter of agri-produce so far. Despite Covid-19, in the three years from FY21 to FY23, India exported about 85 million tonnes of cereals, and this was after giving almost free cereals (rice and/or wheat) to more than 813 million people. India is today, by far, the largest exporter of rice in the world. A part of this success story is written by the Indian fertiliser industry. It has done a yeoman’s service in ensuring that all major essential nutrients like N, P, and K, along with other micronutrients, are either produced at home or imported in sufficient quantities, and distributed to our farmers well in time to give us higher productivity.
Having said that, we must also add that all is not well either with our soils, our fertiliser industry, or our agriculture. There is a slack of at least 30%, and at places even up to 50%. It is this slack that needs to be filled, and a rich harvest will follow. Our fertiliser sector is living on huge subsidisation. It amounted to Rs 1.88 lakh crore, which was almost 4% of the Union Budget of the last fiscal year. Urea, which bags almost two-thirds of subsidies, is being produced primarily in granular form, and its price is controlled by the government, roughly at $70/tonne, which is the cheapest in the world by a wide margin. It has remained almost constant for more than a decade. While di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MOP) were brought under the Nutrient Based Subsidy scheme in 2010, urea was left out. As a result, the relative prices of urea, DAP, and MOP got highly distorted, and so did the use of these essential fertilisers. In most of major agricultural states, N is being overused compared to recommended doses, while P and K are being underused. Punjab is a classic example where the N, P, and K balance has gone for a toss. Compared to recommended doses, according to the package of practices given by the Punjab Agriculture University, Punjab is using 61% excessive N, 89% less K, and 8% less P. Similarly, Telangana is using 54% excess N but 82% less K and 13% less P. The situation in other states is also similar. As a result, farmers see lot of greenery on their farms due to the high use of N but not enough grain due to relatively lower doses of P and K.
This highly imbalanced use of N, P, and K along with the significant neglect of micronutrients leads to suboptimal results on agricultural productivity and thereby farmers’ profitability. It is largely caused by the fertiliser subsidy policy. Think of the fact that the nutrient use efficiency of our current fertilisers is not more than 35-40%. The rest of the fertilisers, especially N, is going to the atmosphere as nitrous oxide, which is 273 times the carbon dioxide released. It is ironical that the massive subsidy on urea is actually creating more poison in the atmosphere than increasing grain yields. On top of this, at least 20-25% of urea is being diverted to other non-agricultural uses and also leaking to neighbouring countries. This must change.
The final solution to fertiliser reform lies in deregulating this sector from price controls. Farmers may be given equivalent direct income transfer in the form of digital coupons to buy fertilisers, be it chemical or bio-fertilisers. Deregulating this industry on the lines of cement, diesel, etc., will make it much better in terms of innovation, efficiency, and, more importantly, give the right signals to our farmers to use N, P, and K in a balanced manner. Also, we need to promote the use of micronutrients to give the best results in terms of productivity as well as farmers’ profits.
But this reform would require a lot of preparation. Triangulating data of fertiliser sales, soil health cards, PM-KISAN, land records, crops grown, as well as the bank accounts and mobile numbers of farmers would be needed. The Union government will also have to communicate that these reforms are in the farmers’ interest. They will gain from it, and so would be the nation, its soils and agriculture.
Views are personal
The writers are distinguished professor and research fellow at ICRIER, respectively.