The government has imported 0.22 million tonne of urea to ensure the required level of supply during the peak consumption months of the rabi season.
This was disclosed by fertiliser minister SS Dhindsa while addressing the consultative committee meeting of his ministry. Although India did not import any urea during 2000-01, this year 0.22 million tonne of urea was imported to ensure a reasonable level of pipeline requirement to prevent any shortage. With a production capacity of 20.9 million tonne of urea, the country has almost become self-sufficient in this fertiliser, he said.
Similarly, in di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), self-sufficiency has been achieved with a production capacity of around 6.4 million tonne, though the country continues to depend on potash imports.
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The minister said there is sufficient availability of all major fertilisers in the current rabi season and the country has become the third largest producer of chemical fertilisers producing 15.7 million tonne of nitrogen and phosphate nutrients in 2000-01.
In order to ensure usage of specified grade of rock phosphate in single super phosphate (SSP) units from sources notified by the fertilisers department, a technical audit and inspection cell has been constituted for conducting first-time and six-monthly inspections. The minister said the step has been taken to ensure good quality of SSP throughout the country following earlier complaints regarding sale of sub-standard SSP from certain states like Uttar Pradesh.
Regarding a possible gap between supply and demand during the Tenth Plan, Dhindsa said the government would encourage indigenous production while managing a reasonable gap to be bridged by imports either through spot purchase or joint ventures like the Oman-India fertiliser project. He said the project having a capacity of 1.65 million tonne per annum is likely to come up during the last year of the Eleventh Plan.