Farmers shift to complex fertilisers as potash sales surge 28.6% until November

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In addition to moving towards complex fertilisers from urea and Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), farmers in the current fiscal have also accepted the new prices of potash as sales of Muriate of Potash (MOP) have increased 28.6 per cent to 14.25 lakh tonnes (lt) until November in the current fiscal from 11.08 lt year-ago. Until a few years back prices of DAP and MOP used to be almost at same level.

However, the government has decided  to cut subsidy on potash, making it costlier than DAP. While 100 per cent of MOP is imported, in the case of DAP, the indigenous production is about 40 per cent, though the majority of the phosphatic production is through imported raw materials.

Under the nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) scheme, the subsidy on potash has been fixed at ₹2.38/kg for Rabi 2024-25 season as against ₹23.65/kg in 2022-23 Rabi season. On the other hand the global price of MOP, which was at $280/tonne in June 2021 and reached $590/tonne in June 2022, has dropped to $283/tonne in October 2024.

With regard to sales of other fertilisers during April-November period, the government data show that urea was 3.5 per cent up at 248.19 lt from 239.69 lt and complex by 25.9 per cent to 108.1 lt from 85.83 lt. But DAP sales dropped 18.3 per cent to 73.92 lt from 90.53 lt. Total sales of urea, DAP, MOP and complex rose 4.1 per cent to 444.46 lt from 427.13 lt year-ago.

Production of all key fertilisers — urea, DAP, complex, single super phosphate (SSP) and Ammonium Sulphate — registered a 1.6 per cent rise to 346.44 lt in the April-November period from 340.94 lt year-ago. Urea production in eight months under review has dipped 1.7 per cent to 205.23 lt from 208.82 lt and that of DAP 7.3 per cent to 28.26 lt from 30.5 lt. On the other hand, the SSP production has gone up 10.9 per cent to 36.59 lt from 33 lt and that of Ammonium Sulphate by 16.6 per cent to 4.78 lt from 4.1 lt. Even complex fertilisers has also surged 10.9 per cent to 71.58 lt from 64.52 lt.

The total import of fertilisers between April and November dipped 20.1 per cent to 102.25 lt from 127.98 lt, which included urea, which increased 31.7 per cent to 32.55 lt from 47.65 lt, DAP, which increased 22 per cent to 35.88 lt from 45.98 lt, and complex, which increased 18.2 per cent to 13.67 lt from 16.72 lt. However, the import of MOP increased 14.3 per cent to 20.15 lt from 17.63 lt.