News Excerpt:

Capping consumption of urea and DAP to correct worsening plant nutrient imbalance is likely on the new government's priority list after the Lok Sabha polls.

What is Balanced fertilisation?

• The requirements of nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash are soil and crop specific. The use of the right ratio of nutrients as per soil or crop requirement is known as "balanced fertilisation".
• It discourages farmers from applying too much urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) or muriate of potash (MOP) to the crops.
• Fertilisers are basically food for crops, containing nutrients necessary for plant growth and grain yields. Balanced fertilisation means supplying these primary (N, phosphorus-P and potassium-K), secondary (sulphur-S, calcium, magnesium) and micro (iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum) nutrients in the right proportion, based on soil type and the crop’s own requirement at different growth stages.

Neem coating of the Urea:

• Neem coating was intended to check illegal diversion of the highly-subsidised urea for non-agricultural uses, including by plywood, dye, cattle feed and synthetic milk makers. 
• Neem oil supposedly also acted as a mild nitrification inhibitor, allowing more gradual release of nitrogen. 
• Improved nitrogen use efficiency, in turn, brought down the number of urea bags required per acre.
• Despite compulsory neem-coating, and the government reducing the bag size from 50 to 45 kg in March 2018, the consumption of urea has only gone up during the last six years.

Nutrient-based subsidy:

• The nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) system of the central government was introduced in April 2010 to promote balanced fertilisation. 
• Under it, the government fixed a per-kg subsidy for N, P, K and S. The subsidy on any fertiliser was, thereby, linked to its nutrient content. 
• Idea behind NBS:
• • The underlying idea was to induce product innovation.
  • It was also introduced to wean away farmers from urea, DAP (18% N and 46% P content) and MOP (60% K), in favour of complex fertilisers containing N, P, K, S and other nutrients in balanced proportions with lower concentrations.
• Achievements and shortcomings of NBS:
• NBS achieved its objective initially. Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, DAP and MOP consumption declined, while that of NPKS complexes and single super phosphate (SSP: 16% P and 11% S) rose. 
• But NBS failed simply because it excluded urea. With its maximum retail price (MRP) being controlled, and cumulatively raised by just 16.5 per cent – from Rs 4,830 to Rs 5,628 per tonne – post the introduction of NBS, consumption of urea increased.

The challenge:

• The restoration of controls on the price of non-urea fertilisers has worsened the nutrient imbalances.
• An immediate challenge is to ensure a proper “price hierarchy” among non-urea fertilisers. That would mean pricing DAP the highest, MOP the lowest and complexes in between.
• India is heavily import-dependent on fertilisers, be it finished products or intermediates and raw materials. High global prices add to the country’s foreign exchange outgo and also the government’s subsidy burden.

The opportunity:

• The cooling of international prices gives some flexibility for the next government to rationalise MRPs of fertilisers and promote balanced plant nutrition. 
• This could involve bringing urea under NBS and mitigating the impact of a significant hike in its MRP by increasing the subsidy rates on other nutrients.
• The Centre, in January, approved the launch of sulphur-coated urea, containing 37% N and 17% S. 
  • Its MRP has been fixed at Rs 266.50 per bag, the same as for regular neem-coated urea. 
  • But in this case, the bag will have only 40 kg, as against 45 kg for the latter – in effect, translating into a 12.5% price hike.
• One can expect many more such “balanced fertilisation” moves in the months ahead.