Parliament Question: Fertilizer supply to Kerala

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3545 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 24.03.2026 Fertilizer supply to Kerala 3545 Shri Sandosh Kumar P: Will the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has ensured adequate supply of fertilizers to the State of Kerala particularly during peak agricultural seasons of the last five years; (b) the quantity of urea, DAP, and other major fertilizers allocated and supplied to Kerala during the said period, year-wise; (c) the present operational status and production capacity of Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), Kochi; (d) whether Government proposes any modernisation or expansion plan for FACT to enhance domestic fertilizer production; and (e) the steps taken to prevent shortage and price fluctuation of fertilizers affecting farmers in Kerala? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS (SMT. ANUPRIYA PATEL) (a), (b) & (e) Following steps are taken by the Government every season for ensuring timely and adequate availability of fertilizers in the country, including the State of Kerala: (i) Before the commencement of each cropping season, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), in consultation with all the State Governments, assesses the State-wise & month-wise requirement of fertilizers.-2- (ii) On the basis of requirement projected by DA&FW, D/o Fertilizers allocates adequate quantities of fertilizers to States by issuing monthly supply plan and continuously monitors the availability. (iii) The movement of all major subsidized fertilizers is monitored throughout the country by an on-line web-based monitoring system called integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS). (iv) The State Governments are regularly advised to coordinate with manufacturers and importers for streamlining the supplies through timely placement of indents. (v) Regular coordination meetings are held with Ministry of Railways for giving sufficient rakes, priority to fertilizers and for timely evacuation of rakes for States. (vi) The distribution of fertilizers within the State at district level is done by the concerned State government. In view of above, it is submitted that the availability of fertilizers viz. Urea, DAP, MOP and NPKS has remained adequate in the State of Kerala during the last five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25. The information regarding requirement, availability and sales of these fertilizers during the said period is placed at Annexure. Further, in order to ensure availability of Urea at affordable price, under the Urea Subsidy Scheme, it is provided to the farmers at a statutorily notified Maximum Retail Price (MRP). The MRP of 45 kg bag of Urea is Rs.242 per bag (exclusive of charges towards Neem coating and taxes as applicable). The difference between the delivered cost of urea at farm gate and net market realization by the urea units is given as subsidy to the Urea manufacturer/importer by the Government of India. Accordingly, all farmers are being supplied Urea at the subsidized rates. Besides, the Government has implemented Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Scheme w.e.f. 01.04.2010 for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) Fertilizers. Under NBS policy, the subsidy is provided to manufacturer/ importer on notified P&K fertilizers on its PoS sale during the season, depending on their nutrient content to ensure availability of fertilizers to farmers. The Government monitors international prices of key fertilizers and raw materials and fluctuations, if any, are subsumed while fixing NBS rates for P&K fertilizers annually / bi-annually to ensure affordable supply of P&K fertilizers to the farmers. Further, to ensure affordability, special provisions like Rs. 3500 per MT to cover 'Other Costs' which includes costs incurred from factory gate to farm gate,-3- 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 to both imported and domestic DAP and imported TSP over and above NBS subsidy for Kharif 2025 and Rabi 2025-26 seasons. (c) & (d) The fertilizer plants of FACT are operating at more than 100% capacity utilization. The production and sales for FY 2025-26 upto February 2026 are as follows: Fig. in MT Installed Production Sales capacity Factamfos 6,33,500 7,53,375 7,14,239 Ammonium Sulphate 2,25,000 2,57,661 2,77,920 Traded (imported/purchased) - - 2,10,860 However, the Company reported a turnover of Rs. 4240 Cr with a loss of Rs.43 Cr during the nine month period ended 31.12.2025 Besides, currently, there is no proposal under consideration in the Department of Fertilizers related to modernization or expansion of FACT to enhance domestic fertilizer production. ******-4- Annexure Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a), (b) & ( e) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question no. 3545 for answering on 24.03.202 KERALA SEASON-WISE REQUIREMENT, AVAILABILITY AND SALES DURING 2020-21 TO 2024-25 FIG. IN MTs UREA DAP MOP NPKS SEASON REQUIREMENT AVAILABILITY SALES REQUIREMENT AVAILABILITY SALES REQUIREMENT AVAILABILITY SALES REQUIREMENT AVAILABILITY SALES KHARIF 2020 56,000 83,000 63,000 10,000 15,000 12,000 40,000 82,000 54,000 62,000 107,000 73,000 RABI 2021-22 57,000 87,000 64,000 8,800 10,000 9,000 45,000 73,000 55,000 63,000 99,000 70,000 KHARIF 2021 64,000 77,870 61,620 12,000 9,850 9,100 60,000 59,330 49,560 77,800 94,140 68,100 RABI 2021-22 58,000 67,650 53,200 8,000 5,380 4,910 50,010 36,770 27,830 67,000 75,380 58,230 KHARIF 2022 65,000 71,820 55,130 12,000 13,090 10,790 57,000 52,460 40,050 75,000 70,550 51,160 RABI 2022-23 58,000 76,510 56,840 7,750 11,040 7,760 50,000 45,690 38,198 67,000 73,645 50,950 KHARIF 2023 60,500 59,450 46,790 12,000 10,760 8,090 57,000 45,220 35,940 75,000 98,670 69,800 RABI 2023-24 58,001 66,250 49,460 7,751 10,000 7,440 40,001 51,450 34,560 66,998 86,090 56,600 KHARIF 2024 53,710 73,270 52,090 10,000 13,410 10,400 42,010 49,940 37,780 76,560 96,340 60,980 RABI 2024-25 57,000 85,000 63,000 7,000 11,000 10,000 40,000 67,770 45,000 60,000 88,000 65,000 1. Primary Indicator of comfortable availability: Availability > Requirement 2. Secondary Indicator of comfortable availability: Availability > Sales