The growth rate in fertiliser consumption, which had risen to 10 per cent in 1993-94, nose-dived to a mere 2 per cent in 1995-96. The ratio of consumption of three major nutrients "" nitrogen, phosphorous and potash "" remained highly skewed at 8.4 : 2.5 : 1.
However, the domestic production as well as import of fertilisers rose appreciably in 1995-96, resulting in inventory buildup in the case of both nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilisers.
According to the latest estimates made by the Fertiliser Association of India (FAI), the country had an inventory of about 2.8 million tonnes of nitrogenous fertilisers in the beginning of the current year. This is 133 per cent higher than a year ago.
The accumulated stock of phosphatic fertilisers on April 1 last was estimated at 1.41 million tonnes, up 100 per cent from the previous year's level.
The FAI's consumption estimates indicate that while the use of nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic nutrients rose by 9 per cent, 3 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, in kharif, it dropped by 2 per cent, 7 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, in the rabi season.
The domestic output of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilisers in 1995-96 is estimated at an all-time high level of 8.77 million tonnes and 2.58 million tonnes, respectively.
The two types of fertilisers together registered an output growth of 8.1 per cent. The increased contribution came mainly from the existing urea plants and fresh production from newly commissioned gas-based plants at Babrala and Shahajahanpur.
The increase in the production of phosphatic fertilisers was, however, only marginal "" about 20,000 tonnes. This was due chiefly to increase in the production of single super phosphate (SSP) and complex fertilisers (other than di-ammonium phosphate (DAP).
The capacity utilisation of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilisers touched 97 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively, in 1995-96, against 91 per cent in each case in the previous year.
The import of urea in 1995-96, estimated at 3.78 million tonnes, was about 1 million tonnes higher than in the previous year. The FAI attributes higher imports to inflated projected demand for rabi 1995.
