India aims to end urea imports from 2025 as the country boosts its local production capacity by commissioning new plants, Fertilizer Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday. India, a major importer of urea, imports about 30% of its average 35 million tonnes of annual crop nutrient consumption. “Our aim is to end our dependence on imported urea by 2025… by then our five new plants will be commissioned,” Mansukh Mandaviya told reporters.
The plants at Gorakhpur in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Ramagundam in southern Telangana and Talcher, Barauni and Sindri in eastern India would together produce 6.5 million tonnes of urea annually. Local production of local urea containing nanoparticles of crop nutrients, also known as nanourea, will increase to 5 million tonnes by 2025, he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the Ramagundam plant on November 12.
India now imports urea from a number of countries, including Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Asia’s third-largest economy needs crop nutrients to feed its huge agricultural sector, which employs about 60% of the country’s workforce and accounts for 15% of its nearly $3 trillion economy. Mandaviya said due to higher global prices, India’s fertilizer subsidy bill for the fiscal year to March 31, 2023 would rise to a record 2.25 trillion Indian rupees ($27.21 billion) from about 1.5 trillion rupees last year.
Urea accounts for about 70% of the total fertilizer subsidy in India. The government also provides a fixed amount of financial support to companies to sell other fertilizers at lower prices to help farmers. India on Wednesday approved the second tranche of subsidy of 518.75 billion rupees for phosphorus and potassium fertilizers for the second half of this fiscal year.
