Indian crop input firms upbeat on rabi season prospects on higher reservoir levels, soil moisture

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The agri input players are upbeat about their prospects of the rabi cropping season as a surplus north-east monsoon has left higher residual soil moisture and reservoir levels. The Central Water Commission, in its last weekly bulletin, said the storage level in the major 155 reservoirs stood at 86 per cent of their capacity. The storage this year is higher than corresponding level a year ago. “With reservoirs being filled up to the brim, the rabi cropping season looks positive. We are beginning to see a good demand for commodity as well as speciality fertilizers” said Sanjiv Kanwar, Managing Director, Yara Fertilisers India.

With prices also being favourable for crops such as wheat and vegetables such as potatoes and onions, farmers are expected to expand the acreages and invest more on inputs in the cropping season.

Fertilizer consumption

With good monsoon, stocks of fertilizers such as urea in the pipeline are depleted. “Urea is moving fast and we do see 2-3 per cent increase in consumption. We also see a very good increase in NPK (nitrogen, phosporous and potassium) consumption, which is a healthy sign as the farmer is seen moving towards balanced crop nutrition,” Kanwar said.

In fact, the input makers largely had a decent growth during the September quarter that was characterised by pricing pressures, and are positive about the prospects in the current quarter. Sowing of key winter crops such as rapeseed mustard, gram and wheat among others has begun across several States.

Ashish Dhobal, CEO, UPL SAS, said the rabi season looks good. “With so much rain, the water table is full. While the rains during September-October are seen as a setback for the kharif harvest, it is good for rabi. We are expecting a decent season for crops such as wheat, mustard, cumin and corn among others,” Dhobhal said, adding that the placement of products has almost been complete.

In post earnings analysts call, Rahul Dhanuka, Managing Director, Dhanuka Agritech said, “With good reservoir position and groundwater situation being very favourable we are looking at very positive rabi acreages coming up, including paddy in South India, very high acreage of over bengal gram, red gram, and black gram in almost the entire South and Maharashtra. We are also looking at positive paddy acreages in East India, although West Bengal and Odisha were impacted by Dana cyclone, but it does not again impact the paddy acreage.”

Dhanuka expects potato resowing to take place in early sown areas that were impacted as higher prices make it lucrative for farmers to invest in potato. Similarly, high onion prices are likely to drive up acreages.