After facing disruptions in shipments, India has opted to boost its fertiliser imports from Canada and Israel so as to ensure the sufficient supplies and stock for the coming sowing season in summer. The disruptions of shipments have been faced owing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
India is one of the top five global importers of fertilisers for its agriculture sector. The Indian agriculture sector employs around 60 percent of the country’s population and contributes 15 percent to the 2.7 trillion dollar economy.
Mansukh Mandaviya, the fertiliser minister said that the government has made advance preparations for the kharif (summer sown crop) season. The country will need around thirty million tonnes of fertilizers, and the arrangements have been made to meet the demand.
He further said that India will have a plush opening stock, which is around one-fourth of the total amount of fertilisers required during the summer season. Indian farmers start sowing seeds, which includes rice, cotton and soybean, on the arrival of the monsoon rains in June.
For fertilizers for the crops, India is completely dependent on imports for its annual consumption of around four to five million tonnes of potash and receives around one third of this quantity from Belarus and Russia.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, shipping routes have been closed off and the strict western sanctions on Russia have made it burdensome to trade with the Russian and Belarusian companies. In view of the developments, the Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) has gone ahead to increase its imports of potash from Canada, Israel and Jordan.
Sources said that in 2022, Indian Potash Ltd will buy 1.2 million tonnes of Potash from Canada, 600,000 tonnes from Israel and 300,000 from Jordan so as to replace the shipments from Russia and Belarus. Indian Potash Ltd is working to prevent any shortage of the fertiliser during the sowing season.
The Indian government was nearing to sign a three-year fertiliser import deal with Russia, when minister Mandaviya might have visited Moscow that was planned for this month. The visit was, however, postponed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Moreover, India relies on Russia and Belarus for complex fertilisers that provide nutrients to more than one crop, such as Nitro Phosphates and Ammonium Phosphate.
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