Reduce cost, restore profitability

It is imperative to reorient fertiliser policies to facilitate development of innovative and situation-specific products

Incredibly, as much as 70 per cent of the farmers’ investment in fertilisers normally goes waste. The reason is outmoded fertiliser products and their inefficient use. In the case of urea, the largest consumed and the most heavily subsidised nitrogenous (N) fertiliser, between 50 and 70 per cent of the applied material is generally lost due to leaching, volatilisation and other causes. In other words, only 30 to 50 per cent of it is actually gainfully utilised by the crops. The fate of phosphatic (P) fertilisers, which are costlier than urea, is even worse. The wastage is as high as 70 to 85 per cent. The loss of potassic (K) fertilisers is, however, relatively meagre, at 20 to 30 per cent, though even this is not insignificant.

In monetary terms, the cumulative losses to the farmers in fertiliser usage come to nearly $7 billion. It includes the loss of $4.2 billion in urea and $2.7 billion in phosphatic fertilisers. These numbers are reported by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) in a strategy paper, brought out in February 2019, titled “Development and adoption of novel fertiliser materials”. This paper holds paucity of research and development (R&D) in the fertiliser sector, cumbersome procedures for the approval of new products and flawed subsidy regime responsible for discouraging the development and commercial production of more efficient and less wastage-prone fertilisers. Barring neem-coating of urea, hardly any other significant innovation has been carried out in this sector to mitigate nutrient losses.

Indian farmers use the same fertilisers today that they were using decades ago. In contrast, farmers in other countries now have a range of new fertiliser products to choose from. These are highly efficient in delivering nutrients to the plants in the right amount and at the right time. The nitrogenous fertilisers sector has witnessed the introduction of the largest variety of such innovative slow nutrient releasing formulations. The wastage of these fertilisers is relatively low. Novel and efficiency-enhanced products of phosphatic and potassic fertilisers, though fewer in numbers, are also quite effective in curbing nutrient losses.

India takes pride in having one of the world’s largest agricultural research networks engaged in the R&D of almost all major aspects of agriculture. But there is yet no research facility devoted exclusively to fertiliser technologies and development of new and better fertiliser products suited specifically for local soils and agro-ecological conditions. This lacuna is reflected also in the low number of patents for innovative fertiliser products. In the past 20 years, only 176 patents have been awarded and only 110 more applied for in India. A sizable number of patent holders and applicants are the foreign companies. What is worse, most of these new and patented products, including the much-needed nutrient mixtures, have failed to hit the market for want of necessary approvals for commercial production, sale and field use. “Almost no fertiliser in India is a patented product (with the exception of only zinc polyphosphate)”, laments the NAAS paper.

This aside, the ill-advised policy of limiting the nutrient-based subsidy to only a few selected fertilisers is proving to be a formidable hurdle in the introduction of innovative, efficient and situation-specific fertilisers. Without fiscal concessions, the new products cannot compete with the subsidised old, outmoded and wastage-prone fertilisers. The customised fertiliser products, which some manufacturers had begun to produce, failed to thrive in the Indian market for this reason. Sulphur-coating of urea to overcome the widespread deficiency of this micronutrient in the Indian soils was also a victim of this policy deficiency.

Thus, the entire gamut of policies governing the fertilisers sector needs to be revisited. It is imperative to reorient the policies to facilitate development of innovative and situation-specific fertilisers capable of releasing nutrients according to the requirement of the plants. Such products would help minimise the wastage and optimise the gains from fertiliser use. Reduction in input costs is vital to restore the profitability of agriculture that has been severely eroded.

Email:surinder.sud@gmail.com