Even as the agricultural ministry is projecting a bumper foodgrain and oilseeds after a fairly good monsoon, a significant drop in sales of fertilisers has been recorded this year.
According to a report in Indian Express, fertiliser firms sold 143.71 lakh tonnes (lt) of urea during April-September, 7.2 per cent below the 154.80 lt for the corresponding kharif season period of 2015.
Not only Urea, even sales of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and complexes (fertilisers with varying proportions of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and sulphur) have dipped — from 50.73 lt to 42.06 lt (17.1 per cent) and from 43.08 to 39.97 lt (7.2 per cent), respectively, the daily reports.
There was a decline in prices, too. Between the last rabi and the current kharif season, the maximum retail price for a 50-kg bag of DAP fell from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,100, net of taxes.
U S Awasthi, managing director, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (Iffco), the country’s largest nutrient maker, said that the overall sluggish sales may have also had to do with droughts in the last two years.
“The rains may have been good this time, but many farmers probably had no money to buy fertilisers. It is possible that they may have also had stocks from purchases last year that couldn’t be used because of drought,” Awasthi told Indian Express.
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