India, one of the top four buyers of urea in the world, has made a provision of 287 lakh metric tonnes for the next 7 months. This has been done at a time when Russia's war with ukraine has created a shortage of fertilizers.

Top government sources have told ThePrint that india has amassed enough stock of urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilisers, which can last a whole year. These developments have come at a time when global urea prices have started rising again after remaining calm earlier this year.

India has made a provision of about 287 lakh metric tonnes of urea for the next 7 months. Its monthly production capacity is maintained at 25 LMT, while 70 lakh MT is already with the states and 16 LMT is reaching india through international tenders in the next two months, along with 1.5 lakh units of Nano Urea every month. The production of sacks is expected.

About 1.5 lakh sacks of nano-urea, an indigenously developed liquid fertilizer - from the plant that prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated last month in Kalol, gujarat - is expected to replace about 3 LMT of urea. In addition, the plants at Barauni in bihar and Sindri in jharkhand are expected to become operational from October, where about 2 LMT of urea will be produced every month.

The annual requirement of urea in india is between 325 and 350 LMT. The annual requirement for DAP is around 100-125 LMT - of which, according to sources, india is expected to produce around 40-50 LMT. He said that the remaining 50 LMT would be imported and 21 LMT is presently with the states.

A senior government official, on condition of anonymity, said, “We do not need to buy any more urea for the rest of the year. This also means that we have so much scope that we can buy from the international market at a time when the prices are favorable for us. india is one of the top four buyers of urea - the rest being Brazil, china and the US. If we do not buy at such prices which seem high to us, then many times we have seen that the prices automatically come down. We will make strategic purchases.

Officials say it is important to make provision of fertilizers well in advance, as even a slight delay in availability can create panic among farmers, which can result in protests – even if fertilizers are available in sufficient quantities and the reason for the delay. The reason is only transportation problem. Russia's conflict with ukraine has put severe pressure on the global fertilizer market, resulting in price increases.

Action on diversion of urea

Urea is a highly subsidized commodity, in which the cost of one sack is Rs 266 for the farmer, while it costs Rs 3,000 for the government of India. Apart from agriculture, urea is also used in industries like plywood resin, crockery, dairy and cattle feed.

According to government sources, the Department of Fertilizers recently conducted extensive raids against companies that were injecting high subsidized urea, used for agricultural purposes, in their industries. During the raids, unaccounted storage of about 25,000 sacks of urea and GST evasion of Rs 64.43 crore were detected.

Six people have been arrested from 52 units of six states involved in this manipulation. These states are – Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan, Telangana, gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Similar raids were conducted at 38 mix manufacturing units (which produce compound fertilizers) in Maharashtra, gujarat, tamil Nadu and Bihar. Of the 15 units where raids were conducted, more than 70 percent of the units failed the quality test. The department has now constituted Fertilizer Flying Squads for regular surprise inspections so that corruption can be checked.