{"id":35062,"date":"2023-04-25T06:09:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T00:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=35062"},"modified":"2025-04-20T21:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:45:49","slug":"issues-related-to-fertiliser-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/issues-related-to-fertiliser-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"Issues Related to Fertiliser Subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Urea Consumption in India<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Government Efforts to Reduce Urea Consumption in India<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why did Government Efforts to Reduce Urea Consumption Fail and its Impact?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What needs to be Done to Reduce Urea Consumption?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sales of urea crossed a record 35.7 million tonnes (mt) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9TgOQXw0GAg\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9TgOQXw0GAg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Urea Consumption in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Like humans, <strong>crops need nutrients<\/strong> &#8211; primary (N, P, K), secondary (S, calcium, magnesium) and micro (iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum) &#8211; for plant growth and grain yield.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fertilisers <\/strong>are essentially food for crops, which provides essential <strong>nutrients<\/strong> to the crops.<\/li>\n<li>High doses of these fertilisers produced more grains and led to the success of the <strong>Green Revolution<\/strong> in the 960s.<\/li>\n<li>However, crop yield response to fertiliser use has more than halved over time. <strong>For example,<\/strong> 1 kg of NPK nutrients yielded 12.1 kg of cereal grains in India during the 1960s, 5 kg during the 2010s.The underlying reason has been the<strong> disproportionate application of N by farmers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/04\/27\/image-20230427102759-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Fertilizer Consumption in India<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Government Efforts to Reduce Urea Consumption in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The introduction of the nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime in 2010.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Under NBS, the government fixed a per-kg subsidy (unlike the earlier product-specific subsidy regime) for each fertiliser nutrient:<strong> Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potash (K) and sulphur (S)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It aims to promote balanced fertilisation<\/strong> by discouraging farmers from applying too much urea (46% N), di-ammonium phosphate (DAP &#8211; 46% P plus 18% N) and muriate of potash (MOP &#8211; 60% K).<\/li>\n<li>NBS was expected to i<strong>nduce product innovation<\/strong>, besides more use of complex fertilisers (having lower concentrations of N, P, K and S in different proportions) and single super phosphate (SSP &#8211; containing only 16% P but also 11% S).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In 2015, the Centre made it <strong>mandatory to coat all indigenously manufactured and imported urea with neem oil<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Consumption did dip in the initial two years, but that trend reversed from 2018-19.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This was followed by replacing 50-kg bags with 45-kg ones in 2018, and the launch of liquid \u2018<strong>Nano Urea<\/strong>\u2019 by the Indian Farmers\u2019 Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in 2021.<\/li>\n<li>None of the above government measures for <strong>checking illegal diversion for non-agricultural use, increasing nitrogen use efficiency<\/strong> have failed in reducing urea consumption.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why did Government Efforts to Reduce Urea Consumption Fail and its Impact?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The failure of NBS:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The data reveals worsening of nutrient imbalance, with urea consumption rising at the expense of NPKS complexes and SSP.<\/li>\n<li>This is because the <strong>maximum retail price (MRP) of urea<\/strong> is going up by a mere 16.5% from Rs 4,830 to Rs 5,628 per tonne post the introduction of NBS.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The current per-tonne MRPs<\/strong> (Rs 5,628 for urea, Rs 27,000 for DAP and Rs 34,000 for MOP)<strong> are nowhere compatible with a 4:2:1 NPK use ratio<\/strong> generally considered ideal for Indian soils.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The price controls on DAP<\/strong>, with companies not allowed to charge more than Rs 27,000 per tonne.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Decline in nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and crop yield<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>NUE <\/strong>refers to the proportion of N applied mainly through urea that is actually utilised by crops to produce harvested yields.<\/li>\n<li><strong>NUE in India has fallen<\/strong> from 48.2% in 1962-63 to 34.7% in 2018, which was below the global average of 45.3% and 53.3% for North America in 2018.<\/li>\n<li>This has led to the reduction of crop yield response to fertiliser use by more than half over time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What needs to be Done to Reduce Urea Consumption?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The obvious solution is to reduce the consumption of N<\/strong> and promote products containing other nutrients in desired (crop- and soil-specific) combinations.\n<ul>\n<li>For this, the government should make <strong>incorporation of urease and nitrification inhibitors compulsory in urea.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>These are chemical compounds that inhibit the activity of <strong>urease <\/strong>(a soil enzyme that breaks down urea into ammonium and further to ammonia) and <strong>nitrifying bacteria<\/strong> (that convert ammonium to nitrate), making more N available to the crops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>There are two approaches to cut urea consumption &#8211; <strong>raising prices and improving NUE<\/strong> &#8211; enabling farmers to harvest the same or more grain yields with fewer bags.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nano Urea<\/strong> &#8211; ultra-small size of its particles (20-50 nanometers &#8211; is primarily aimed at boosting NUE by allowing easier penetration through the stomatal pores of leaves.<\/li>\n<li>IFFCO claims that <strong>a single 500-ml Nano Urea bottle<\/strong> containing just 4% N <strong>can replace at least one 45-kg bag of regular 46% N urea.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>If the government wants to promote Nano Urea (for foliar application directly to the leaves), it may have to <strong>subsidise the cost of spraying.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What do you mean by organic farming?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Organic farming can be defined as a system of management and agricultural production that combines a high level of biodiversity with environmental practices that preserve natural resources and has rigorous standards for animal welfare.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZNBF)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>ZBNF guides the farmers towards sustainable farming practices thus helps in retaining soil fertility, to ensure a chemical free agriculture and ensure low cost of production (zero cost) and thereby enhancing the farmers income.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-economics\/why-urea-rules-indias-farms-8573907\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong><u>Why urea rules India\u2019s farms<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Urea rules Indian farms because the MRP of urea is going up by a mere 16.5% from Rs 4,830 to Rs 5,628 per tonne post the introduction of NBS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}