Parliament Question: Fertilizer shortage during Kharif season 2025

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.191 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 10.03.2026 Fertilizer shortage during Kharif season 2025 191 SHRI SAKET GOKHALE:

Will the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers be pleased to state:

(a) the reasons for acute shortage of urea and DAP during Kharif sowing season 2025 across multiple States including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana;

(b) whether the quantity of DAP imports from China dropped from 22.9 lakh tonnes (2023-24) to 8.4 lakh tonnes (2024-25), the contingency measures taken in this regard;

(c) the action taken against instances of black marketing and forced product tagging reported in Uttar Pradesh; and

(d) the steps taken to reduce India's 90 per cent dependence on imported Phosphatic fertilizers? ANSWER THE MINISTER FOR CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS (SHRI JAGAT PRAKASH NADDA)

(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the table of the House. *******-2- STATEMENT REFERRED TO RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 191* FOR 10.03.2026 REGARDING “FERTILIZER SHORTAGE DURING KHARIF SEASON 2025” TABLED BY SHRI SAKET GOKHALE.

(a) The mandate of D/o Fertilizers is to ensure adequate availability of fertilizers at State level. However, distribution of fertilizers within the State at district level, is done by the concerned State government.

In this regard, the availability of Urea and DAP remained adequate during the Kharif 2025 season. The information regarding requirement, availability and sales of these fertilizers across the Sates, including the States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana, during the said season is placed at Annexure.

Further, the availability of fertilizers viz. Urea, DAP, MOP and NPKS, in the country, has remained adequate during the ongoing Rabi 2025-26 season i.e. from

01.10.2025 to 05.03.2026. The information regarding requirement, availability, sales

and closing stock of these fertilizers during the said period is as under:

ALL INDIA FERTILIZER POSITION FOR RABI 2025-26 (TILL 05/03/26) FIG. IN LMT Sales Pro rata Availabilit From Stock Requiremen Requiremen S.N Produc y From 01/10/2 as on t for RABI t From o t 01/10/25 to 5 to 05/03/2 2025-26 01/10/25 to 05/03/26 05/03/2 6 05/03/26 6 1 UREA 196.06 183.51 235.33 186.33 49.01 2 DAP 53.43 51.38 71.89 50.28 21.61 3 MOP 15.69 14.18 18.18 10.18 8.00 4 NPKS 82.38 76.48 108.41 62.90 45.51

(b) The Government has implemented Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme w.e.f. 01.04.2010 for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) Fertilizers. Under the scheme, P&K fertilizers are covered under Open General License (OGL) and companies are free to import/manufacture these fertilizers as per their business dynamics.

Accordingly, the year-wise quantity of DAP imports from China in the country for Years 2023-24 & 2024-25 is as below:

Import of DAP from China during year 2023-24 & 2024-25 Qty in LMT As Reported by the Companies Year DAP 2023-24 22.28 2024-25 8.47 Further, to ensure uninterrupted import of DAP in the country, Government actively engaged with resource-rich countries to diversify the import sources and facilitated the signing of Long-Term Agreements (LTAs) and Memoranda of Understanding

(MoUs) between Indian fertilizer companies and international suppliers for supply of-3- DAP/NPKs with annual quantity of 31 lakh tonnes from Saudi Arabia, 30.10 lakh tonnes from Russia and 25 lakh tonnes from Morocco in 2025-26. These arrangements helped mitigate supply risks in the country.

(c) In order to address the issues such as black-marketing and over-pricing, fertilizer is declared as an essential commodity under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and notified under Fertilizer Control Order, 1985. State Governments are empowered to take action against persons involved in said malpractices, as per provisions of EC Act. Any complaints received at Department of Fertilizers level regarding these malpractices is sent to concerned State Government to take appropriate action under Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and Fertilizer Control Order, 1985. Accordingly, State Government of Uttar Pradesh has informed that 52 FIRs have been lodged against offenders in case of black marketing and 07 FIRs in case of forced tagging from April 2025 to February 2026. Further, the State has also informed that recently an order no.1974782/12-2099/407/2025-1860/2025 dated 09 Jan, 2026 has been issued by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to curb tagging of other products with subsidized fertilizers.

(d) In order to reduce dependence on imported Phosphatic fertilizers and make country self-reliant, the following measures have been taken by the Government:

(I) D/o Fertilizers has issued guidelines dated 18.01.2024 to ensure reasonableness of MRP of P&K fertilizers and encourage domestic production.

(II) Based on the requests, the new manufacturing units or increase in manufacturing capacity of existing units have been recognized / taken on record under the NBS Scheme.

(III) The number of P&K fertilizers covered under NBS policy has increased from 22 grades in 2021 to 28 grades.

(IV) Freight Subsidy on SSP, which is an indigenously manufactured fertilizer, has been approved since Kharif – 2022 season to promote SSP usage for providing Phosphatic or 'P' nutrient to the soil.

(v) Special provisions like Rs. 3500 per MT to cover ‘Other Costs’ which includes costs incurred from factory gate to farm gate, advantage / disadvantage due to increase / decrease in international prices, provision for GST component included in the MRP and provision for reasonable return @ 4% of net MRP (MRP-GST) have been extended for domestic DAP production.

Further, the Government is promoting use of SSP which is a low cost indigenous fertilizer and substitute for Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP). Following steps have been taken by

the Government to promote Indigenous SSP Fertilizers:

(i) Under Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS Scheme) for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers, an additional subsidy of Rs. 500MT and Rs. 300MT is being provided for fortification of SSP fertilizers with Zinc and micro-nutrient & Boron micro-nutrient respectively to promote balanced nutrient management.

(ii) Subsidy rate for nutrients of SSP Fertilizer are revised on biannually basis to ensure price stability and market viability for producers.

(iii) The Nutrient Based Subsidy is applicable to all SSP manufacturing units registered under NBS scheme.

Above steps together have facilitated increase production of P&K fertilizers (including DAP & SSP) from 159.54 LMT in 2014-15 to 211.22 LMT in 2024-25. *******-4- ANNEXURE STATE WISE REQUIREMENT, AVAILABILITY & SALES OF UREA and DAP DURING THE KHARIF 2025 Fig. in LMT UREA DAP S.No State Requirement Availability DBT Sales Requirement Availability DBT Sales Andaman and Nicobar 1 Islands 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2 Andhra Pradesh 6.22 8.71 7.50 2.60 3.43 2.56 3 Arunachal Pradesh 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 4 Assam 1.70 2.68 2.34 0.28 0.52 0.27 5 Bihar 10.32 12.47 10.74 2.20 3.62 1.91 6 Chandigarh 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7 Chhattisgarh 7.12 7.87 7.25 3.10 2.52 2.13 8 Dadra and Nagar Haveli 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 9 Daman and Diu 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10 Delhi 0.11 0.12 0.10 0.02 0.03 0.03 11 Goa 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.00 12 Gujarat 11.12 11.83 10.04 3.40 3.18 2.41 13 Haryana 10.07 13.33 11.31 2.83 3.60 2.76 14 Himachal Pradesh 0.33 0.55 0.36 0.01 0.04 0.03 15 Jammu and kashmir 0.78 1.25 0.91 0.22 0.25 0.21 16 Jharkhand 1.70 2.23 1.91 0.55 0.71 0.46 17 Karnataka 11.17 12.63 11.07 4.00 4.77 3.60 18 Kerala 0.52 0.73 0.59 0.12 0.18 0.11 19 Lakshadweep 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 20 Madhya Pradesh 17.42 21.24 18.26 7.50 7.41 5.47 21 Maharashtra 15.52 19.11 15.72 4.60 4.66 3.10 22 Manipur 0.11 0.13 0.12 0.02 0.03 0.02 23 Meghalaya 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 24 Mizoram 0.07 0.10 0.09 0.01 0.00 0.00 25 Nagaland 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 26 Odisha 4.30 5.86 5.30 2.00 2.32 1.96 27 Puducherry 0.07 0.08 0.07 0.01 0.01 0.01 28 Punjab 14.92 19.19 15.94 2.85 3.86 2.36 29 Rajasthan 10.52 14.36 11.20 5.10 5.04 4.04 30 Sikkim 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 31 Tamil Nadu 4.37 6.07 5.06 1.40 2.01 1.29 32 Telangana 9.80 10.28 9.79 2.40 2.88 2.38 33 Tripura 0.08 0.16 0.09 0.02 0.03 0.02 34 Uttarakhand 1.00 1.35 1.16 0.15 0.38 0.23 35 Uttar Pradesh 39.92 48.93 40.24 10.00 12.45 7.70 36 West Bengal 6.10 9.18 6.00 1.60 2.46 1.28 All India 185.39 230.51 193.21 56.99 66.38 46.33

1. Primary Indicator of comfortable availability: Availability > Requirement

2. Secondary Indicator of comfortable availability: Availability > Sales ****