Capping and even decreasing the consumption of urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MOP) has develop into a strategic crucial of types for India.
The first cause: All these fertilisers are imported, whether or not straight or as inputs for home manufacturing.
MOP is wholly imported from international locations similar to Canada, Russia, Jordan, Israel, Turkmenistan and Belarus, as India has no mineable potash reserves. In urea, India’s manufacturing meets over 85% of its consumption demand, however the crops principally run on liquefied pure gasoline imported from Qatar, US, UAE or Angola.
DAP is imported within the type of completed fertiliser (primarily from Saudi Arabia, China, Morocco, Russia and Jordan) in addition to uncooked materials (rock phosphate from Jordan, Morocco, Togo, Egypt and Algeria; sulphur from UAE, Qatar and Oman) and intermediate chemical compounds (phosphoric acid from Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia; ammonia from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Indonesia).
Import dependence – made worse by the rupee’s depreciation – aside, a second cause for limiting urea, DAP and MOP utilization is that they’re high-analysis fertilisers: Urea and MOP include 46% nitrogen (N) and 60% potash (P) respectively. DAP has 46% phosphorous (P) plus 18% N.
Most crops don’t require fertilises with such excessive proportion of particular person vitamins. They want balanced fertilisation – merchandise with vitamins in the best portions and ratios for efficient absorption by way of the plant roots and leaves.
These embrace not solely N, P and Ok, but in addition secondary vitamins (sulphur, calcium and magnesium) and micronutrients (zinc, iron, copper, boron, manganese and molybdenum). Weaning away farmers from high-analysis fertilisers additionally interprets into extra environment friendly use of imported materials and scarce overseas trade.
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An efficient DAP alternative
instance is 20:20:0:13 or ammonium phosphate sulphate (APS). A fancy fertiliser with 20% N, 20% P, 0% Ok and 13% sulphur (S), it has emerged as an efficient substitute for DAP, regardless of having lower than half of the latter’s P content material.
DAP is manufactured by importing merchant-grade phosphoric acid with 52-54% P content material and reacting it with ammonia (the supply of N). The tip-product has 18% N and 46% P.
However firms can, as an alternative, import rock phosphate with 28-36% P and react it with sulphuric acid. The resultant “weak” phosphoric acid, with solely 27-29% P, is additional reacted with ammonia and sulphuric acid to provide 20:20:0:13. Alternatively, they will import regular “robust” phosphoric acid, whereas utilizing much less of it for concurrently reacting with sulphuric acid (the supply of S) and ammonia to make APS.
“The thought is to not waste costly phosphoric acid. Making one tonne of DAP requires about 460 kg of phosphoric acid and 220 kg of ammonia. Right here, you employ solely 220-230 kg of phosphoric acid, 220 kg of ammonia and 1,200 kg of sulphuric acid to get one tonne of 20:20:0:13,” defined G. Ravi Prasad, a fertiliser business veteran.
Substitution drivers
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APS, in response to Prasad, is nice sufficient for oilseeds, pulses, maize, cotton, onion, chilly and all such “sulphur-hungry” crops. Even the P and Ok nutrient requirement of potato will be successfully met by way of 10:26:26:0 or 12:32:16:0 complicated fertilisers: “We must always reserve DAP use just for wheat, rice and sugarcane”.
Gross sales of 20:20:0:13 recorded a 32.4% bounce, from 4.9 million tonnes (mt) in April-January 2024-25 to six.5 mt in April-January 2023-24, whereas dipping by 14.1% for DAP (see desk). The present fiscal (April-March) may finish with all-time-high APS gross sales of seven mt and DAP at 9 mt, the bottom since 2016-17.
APS has develop into India’s third largest-consumed fertiliser after urea and DAP. It has overtaken single tremendous phosphate (SSP), beforehand the most well-liked various to DAP. SSP, which accommodates 16% P and 11% S, is manufactured by reacting rock phosphate straight with sulphuric acid.
“APS was historically consumed within the South (60% share) and West (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat). However within the final 4-5 years, its acceptability has elevated inthe East and even North, and throughout crops. It’s a steady product with P in water-soluble type, in addition to having N (not current in SSP) and S (absent in DAP),” stated N. Suresh Krishnan, chairman of the Fertiliser Affiliation of India.
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Main APS producers are Coromandel Worldwide, Paradeep Phosphates, Mangalore Chemical substances & Fertilizers, Fertilisers and Chemical substances Travancore (FACT), Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative and Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemical substances. Whereas FACT was the pioneer – advertising 20:20:0:13 as FACTAMFOS and in addition in zincated (0.5% zinc) type – the others, too, have been aggressively advertising this fertiliser.
A key driver has been the brief provide of DAP and the federal government not offering sufficient subsidy to cowl import/manufacturing prices.
The Centre has informally fastened a most retail worth (MRP) of Rs 27,000 per tonne for DAP. That, together with a subsidy of Rs 21,911 and a particular concession of Rs 3,500, takes the gross realisation for to Rs 52,411 per tonne. As towards this, the ruling landed worth of imported DAP alone is round $636 or Rs 55,150 per tonne.
Including customs responsibility, port dealing with, bagging, curiosity, vendor margin and different bills pushes up the full price to over Rs 65,000 per tonne, making imports unviable. These have fallen, from 5.1 mt in April-January 2023-24 to 4.3 mt in April-January 2024-25.
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Alternatively, the MRP of APS is simply Rs 1,000 decrease at Rs 26,000 per tonne. And by promoting twice the variety of baggage from the same amount of phosphoric acid, firms are making some cash – not shedding, as they’re with DAP now.
The street forward
This fiscal (2024-25) ought to see gross sales of NPKS complicated fertilisers contact 14 mt, nearly double the 7.3 mt of 2013-14. A lot of it’s courtesy of 20:20:0:13, which is steadily changing DAP.
An analogous advertising push is critical for 10:26:26:0, 12:32:16:0, 15:15:15:0 and 14:35:14:0, in order to minimise direct utility of MOP and promoting solely after incorporating into these complexes.
The last word purpose, to repeat, should be to cap, if not scale back, consumption of all high-analysis fertilisers. That features urea; farmers have to be nudged in the direction of nutrient use effectivity with a view to maximise the bang for the buck (learn overseas trade).
