Parliament Question: Sub-Standard Fertilizers

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2216 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 31.07.2026 Sub-Standard Fertilizers ✝2216. Shri Lalji Verma: Shri Chandan Chauhan: Will the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has taken note of the fact that companies often sell spurious sub-standard fertilizers to farmers, causing damage to crops and financial losses to them, if so, the number of such cases lodged by the farmers/farmer groups during the last five years, year/category/State-wise, including Uttar Pradesh, along with the action taken thereon; (b) whether no strict/concrete action has been taken against such fraudulent companies apart from registering FIRs and seizing fertilizers despite registration of so many complaints, if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto; (c) whether the Government is considering to issue any guidelines to take strict action against such companies, if so, the details thereof; (d) whether the Government has taken cognizance of the fact that due to limited or delayed supply of fertilizers, farmers are forced to purchase spurious fertilizers; and (e) if so, the concrete steps taken by the Government to curb the sale of spurious and sub-standard fertilizers and to ensure the timely availability of quality fertilizers to farmers? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS (SMT. ANUPRIYA PATEL)(a) to (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 Uttar Pradesh: (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. On the basis of requirement projected by DA&FW, Department of Fertilizers (DoF) allocates adequate quantities of fertilizers to States by issuing monthly supply plan and continuously monitors the availability. (ii) 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). (iii) The gap between demand (requirement) and production for Urea & other fertilizer is met through imports. The import for the season is also finalized well in advance to ensure timely availability. (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 is done with the 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/block level is done by the concerned State government. In view of above, the availability of fertilizers viz. Urea, DAP, MOP and NPKS has remained adequate in the country during the ongoing Kharif 2026 season as shown below:AVAILABILITY OF FERTILIZERS IN THE COUNTRY DURING THE ONGOING KHARIF 2026 SEASON (FROM 01.04.26 TO 28.07.26) Fig. in LMT Closing Stock as on S.No PRODUCT Requirement Availability DBT Sales 28.07.2026 1 UREA 121.5 176.03 110.8 65.23 2 DAP 35.06 42.67 26.24 16.43 3 MOP 11.09 14.28 5.79 8.49 4 NPKS 53.44 88.45 44.24 44.2 1. Primary Indicator of comfortable availability: Availability > Requirement 2. Secondary Indicator of comfortable availability: Availability > Sales Besides, State Government of Uttar Pradesh has informed that there is no shortage or delayed supply of fertilizers in the State of Uttar Pradesh and the Government is fully committed to ensuring timely availability of fertilizers to farmers at the notified prices. Further, in order to address the issues of black-marketing, substandard fertilizers and other malpractices, fertilizers are declared as an essential commodity under the Essential Commodities Act-1955 and notified under Fertilizer Control Order-1985. State Governments are adequately empowered to take action against persons involved in such malpractices, as per provisions of EC Act. The complaints received at D/o Fertilizers level regarding these malpractices are sent to concerned State Government to take appropriate action under Essential Commodities Act-1955 and Fertilizer Control Order- 1985. The State-wise information regarding complaints received in D/o Fertilizers through CP-GRAMS portal, which is an online platform to redress grievances related to fertilizers, from 01.04.2021 till date is placed at Annexure-A. Moreover, DA&FW in consultation with the State Governments is regularly monitoring the enforcement action taken by States against the cases of Black marketing, Hoarding, Sub- standard and Diversion on weekly basis. As informed by DA&FW, in the country in FY 2025-26, 4,84,663 raids have been conducted, 17,392 show cause notices have been issued, 6,941 licenses have been suspended/cancelled and 847 FIRs have been registered against defaulters. In FY 2026-27 i.e. from 01.04.2026 to 24.07.2026, 1,69,031 raids have been conducted, 9,127 show cause notices have been issued, 2,868 licenses have been suspended/cancelled and 270 FIRs have been registered against defaultersto curb these malpractices; the State-wise information of enforcement activities along with quantity of fertilizers seized in FY 2026-27 are placed at Annexure-B. Further, State Government of Uttar Pradesh has informed that during enforcement activities carried out under the Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985, cases relating to the manufacture, sale and distribution of spurious and non-standard fertilizers have been detected. Appropriate legal action were initiated against the offenders in accordance with the provisions of the Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985 and other applicable laws. The details of such cases detected during the last five years are given below: S.No Financial Year No of Cases FIR Logged 1 2021-22 3 3 2 2022-23 13 13 3 2023-24 6 6 4 2024-25 16 16 5 2025-26 19 19 In addition, State has also informed that in order to curb the manufacture, sale and distribution of spurious and sub-standard fertilizers, regular enforcement drives are undertaken by the State Agriculture Department in coordination with the concerned authorities. During such enforcement activities, inspections and surprise raids are conducted, fertilizer stocks are physically verified, and fertilizer samples are drawn for quality testing in accordance with the provisions of the Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985. In cases where fertilizer samples are found to be non-standard or where violations of the statutory provisions are detected, appropriate departmental as well as legal action is initiated under the relevant provisions of the Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985 and the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, as applicable. *******ANNEXURE-A Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Un-starred Question No 2216 for answering on 31.07.2026 DETAILS OF COMPLAINTs SINCE 01.04.2021 Sr. No. STATES No. of Complaints 1 Andaman And Nicobar Islands 1 2 Andhra Pradesh 14 3 Assam 2 4 Bihar 86 5 Chhattisgarh 18 6 Delhi 6 7 Gujarat 15 8 Haryana 36 9 Jammu And Kashmir 5 10 Jharkhand 5 11 Karnataka 21 12 Keralam 3 13 Madhya Pradesh 39 14 Maharashtra 17 15 Manipur 1 16 Mizoram 3 17 Odisha 8 18 Punjab 25 19 Rajasthan 41 20 Tamil nadu 14 21 Telangana 6 22 Uttar Pradesh 227 23 Uttarakhand 4 24 West Bengal 14 Grand Total 611ANNEXURE B Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Un-starred Question No 2216 for answering on 31.07.2026 Action taken by the State GovernmentS to check black marketing, hoarding, quality check, diversion etc during the Kharif 2026 season from 01.04.2026 to 24.07.2026 Black Marketing Hoarding Sub Standard Quality Diversion Quantity of Total material No. of No. of licenses No. of No. of licenses Show States InspN eo c. to iof ns cS ah uo sw e canli cc ee ln les de /s s us regiF sI tR e red nS oh tio cw e c isa su us ee d ca sn pc ee nll de ed d/s u regiF sI tR e red cS ah uo sw e canli cc ee ln les de /s s us regiF sI tR e red nS oh tio cw e cause can pc ee nll de ed d/s us regiF sI tR e red (ins te ei rz med s of c na ou tis ce e N cao n. co ef ll leic de /sn us se ps regiF sI tR e red /raids notice pended notice pended issued Bag) issued ended issued issued Andaman & 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nicobar Islands Andhra 5270 4 4 0 94 66 4 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 135 70 4 Pradesh Arunachal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pradesh Assam 3204 6 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 0 16 4 0 Bihar 15074 652 627 57 1 149 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 653 776 72 Chhattisgarh 5143 209 48 5 34 9 2 63 0 1 0 0 1 30029 306 57 9 Dadar & 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nagar Delhi 150 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Goa 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gujarat 7563 39 0 1 4 3 0 17 0 8 1 0 5 0 61 3 14 Haryana 494 8 7 0 22 31 6 9 6 0 3 6 2 0 42 50 8 Himachal 56 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pradesh Jammu & 9147 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1562 0 0 1 Kashmir Jharkhand 633 10 0 0 25 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 35 2 1 Karnataka 15702 2132 2 0 0 0 0 76 0 0 5 0 6 4208 2213 2 6 Kerala 630 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 2 0 0 2202 8 0 0 Madhya 1021 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 9 23 22 0 0 23 22 13 Pradesh Maharashtra 40574 850 575 17 728 222 1 563 426 39 16 20 7 0 2157 1243 64 Manipur 61 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Meghalaya 330 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Mizoram 97 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nagaland 92 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Odisha 9716 0 2 0 0 0 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 120 4 4 1 Puducherry 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Punjab 1859 10 0 0 0 0 0 51 7 4 49 0 8 0 110 7 12 Rajasthan 8280 712 20 1 139 28 3 121 0 1 167 1 6 4288 1139 49 11 Tamilnadu 5377 0 0 0 138 0 6 221 0 0 118 0 2 0 477 0 8 Telangana 11658 28 9 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 2 1 0 31 13 7 Tripura 964 0 0 0 165 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 165 0 0 Uttar Pradesh 9896 1092 363 25 46 58 2 87 69 5 23 58 6 3826 1248 548 38 Uttarakhand 351 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 West Bengal 15601 5 2 0 264 16 0 35 0 0 0 0 0 0 304 18 0 Total 169031 5757 1659 117 1666 584 40 1290 512 67 414 113 46 46235 9127 2868 270