With monsoon remaining dormant, it is being feared that there would be a fall in fertiliser usage by over 15 per cent this season.
This year, the agriculture department estimated fertiliser usage at 7.17 million tonne (mt) including 3.73 mt during kharif and 4.02 mt in rabi. Though the southwest monsoon advanced into the state on June 1, it has since remained inactive. Farming activities have suffered resulting in a lower demand for fertiliser.
“There was good demand for fertiliser at the beginning of the season as farmers anticipated a good monsoon. Also, the supply situation was comfortable this year as we had 421,000 tonne opening stock,” said agriculture department additional director (fertiliser) K Ramchandram. The government made 1.65 million tonne fertiliser available during the four months from April to July.
Last year, 5.99 mt fertiliser, including 3.17 mt during kharif and 2.81 mt, during rabi was consumed. The situation during August last year was more or less similar. However, rain occurred in the third week of August then. “It will be difficult to estimate the quantum of reduction in fertiliser usage at this stage. There is still time for cultivating alternative crops,” he said, adding that there would not be any shortage of fertiliser this year.
With additional land being brought under irrigation, the demand for fertiliser would have increased if not for the failed monsoon. Last year, 150,000 hectare was added to the cultivation. This year, 8.21 million hectare was to be brought under irrigation during the kharif as against 8.09 million hectare last year. The total area planned for the full year was 12.40 million hectare as against 12.14 million hectare last year. The state set a foodgrain production target of 20.71 million tonne for the year 2009-10 apart from bringing 100,000 acre under horticulture afresh.
According to V Ravichandran, managing director of Coromandel Fertilisers, the drop in fertilise usage was imminent. Cultivation of paddy and cotton, two of the major fertiliser users, was badly hit due to the dormant monsoon. Paddy accounts for about 40 per cent of the total fertiliser consumption in the state. Even if the monsoon revived to normalcy now, there is no scope for paddy cultivation, he pointed out.
Andhra Pradesh consumes about 20 per cent of the total diammonium phosphate (DAP) in the country. “There would be a drastic reduction in the import of DAP this year,”' Ravichandran said. The country imports roughly about 8 million tonne DAP a year but this is expected to be about 6 million tonne this year due to the reduced usage forced by the weak monsoon, he added.
Andhra Pradesh apart, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where monsoon failed, would see a fall in the usage of fertiliser. On the other hand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka would see a steady demand for fertiliser on account of normal monsoon, he added.
“The demand for fertiliser from April to May was good. But with monsoon failing, the demand is slowing down,” he said adding this could be in the range of 10 to 15 per cent.
There is still scope for farmers to cultivate Bengalgram in the Rayalaseema region and chilly in the Guntur belt if monsoon revives now, which could spur the sale of fertiliser to some extent. However, the demand for fertiliser might go up during rabi, which is the usual thing to happen after a not-so-active kharif, he said.
The state government has earmarked about Rs 4,000 crore for fertiliser subsidy this year. The subsidy bill was Rs 1,295 crore in 2005-06, Rs 1,650 crore during 2006-07, Rs 2,572 crore during 2007-08 and about Rs 3,500 crore in 2008-09.
The agriculture department is in the process of implementing a contingency plan to cover a little less than a million hectare under maize, jowar, sunflower, redgram, greengram, horsegram, safflower or sesamum in 12 districts.
