The projected requirement of key fertilisers – urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) – for the kharif season has been revised downward by one million tonne (MT) to 25 MT following re-assessment of demand, a senior official said on Monday.
“With possibility of development of El Nino conditions during monsoon season, we had requested the agriculture ministry for re-assessment of kharif requirement and based on their discussions with states, the requirement of urea and DAP has been revised downward,” Aparna S Sharma, additional secretary, department of fertiliser, said in a briefing.
The urea demand is now projected at 19 MT, down from the earlier assessment of 19.4 MT, and DAP demand is projected at 6 MT, down from 6.6 MT stated earlier. Sharma said the overall fertiliser requirement for all variants for the kharif season has been reassessed to 38.39 MT. This is against the current stock of around 19.98 MT or over 52% of the requirement, and significantly higher than the usual level of about 33%.
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Strategic Stockpiles
The government has built up 13.24 MT of fertiliser stock through imports and domestic production since the commencement of the West Asia crisis. The official said India secured sourcing around 2.5 MT (urea), 1.5 MT (DAP), and 1 MT (NPKs) by passing the Strait of Hormuz which are likely to arrive at ports during June-July. Meanwhile agencies have floated a second tender for importing 1.7 MT urea. In April, Indian Potash floated a tender for the import of 2.5 MT of urea which is being sourced from countries including Russia, Algeria, Nigeria and Oman.
With the closure of the Strait, LNG supplies from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were disrupted leading to a drop in domestic urea production in March and the first half of April. With the government approving spot purchases of LNG, production has commenced.
The department also noted a sharp rise in global urea prices– international prices have increased to $947/tonne currently from $447/tonne in February before the West Asia crisis. “Despite elevated global prices, domestic production of urea and DAP remains higher compared with the previous year,” Sharma said.
According to the official, domestic urea production in May was 2.51 MT which was 0.28 MT higher than in the same period last year. DAP production of 0.38 MT last month is marginally higher than May, 2025.
Controlled Subsidy Outlays
On the possibility of a spike in fertiliser subsidy in the current fiscal, Sharma said that against the budget estimate of Rs 1.77 lakh crore, “20% of the budgetary allocation has been utilised in the first two months of current fiscal.
“No unusual volatility in food prices”
There has not been unusual volatility in the prices of food commodities, Anupam Mishra, additional secretary, department of consumer affairs, said on Monday.
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“Prices of food commodities are stable. Price trends across key food categories such as cereals, milk, pulses and sugar continue to exhibit stable price behaviour,” Mishra said. The department currently tracks daily retails and wholesale prices of 40 food commodities from 578 centres across the country.
On the probability of below normal monsoon this season because of the El Nino effect, Mishra said the agriculture ministry has established crop monitoring and crisis management teams, while states have been advised to maintain seed reserves and prepare contingency plans to minimise any impact on agricultural output.
TOPICSKharif cropsThis article was first uploaded on June one, twenty twenty-six, at four minutes past ten in the night. © The Indian Express (P) Ltd