The country had to import urea in 2001-02 after a gap of a year owing to decline in production of nitrogenous fertiliser (N), the annual review released by the Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) has pointed out.
Import of urea touched 2,10,000 tonnes in 2001-02 while no imports had been needed in 2000-01. However, urea imports in 1999-2000 were at 5,33,000 tonnes.
The production of N dropped by 2.3 per cent to 10.690 million tonnes during 2001-02 compared to the previous year.
The production of straight nitrogenous and straight phosphatic fertilizers suffered a further setback as production of urea declined by nearly 6,21,000 tonnes from a total of 19.624 million tonnes during 2000-01 to 19.003 million tonnes during 2001-02. In contrast, production of phosphate (P) was moderately higher by 2.8 per cent, at 3.837 million tonnes.
In the same period, consumption of N rose from 10.92 million tonnes during 2000-01 to 11.42 million tonnes during 2001-02. The consumption of P too increased to 4.42 million this year tonnes, up from 4.21 million tonnes last year.
The consumption of K increased 8.9 per cent. This overall increase in consumption levels of all nutrients led to a partial recovery of the fertilizer sector.
India imported 9,33,000 tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) as well in 2001-02, up from 8,60,000 tonnes in the previous year.
