Urea as a Fertilizer

26-08-2023

01:27 PM

1 min read

Mains GS-III: Economy

What’s in today’s article?

Why in News?
Consumption of Fertilisers in India
Two Main Concerns Over Rising Urea Consumption
Government Efforts to Reduce Urea Consumption in India
What is Urea Gold?
Main Hurdle in the Fortification of Urea and Way Ahead

Why in News?

Recently, the PM of India officially launched ‘Urea Gold’ fertiliser - basically urea fortified with sulphur, developed by the state-owned Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (RCF).
Urea is a chemical nitrogen fertiliser, white in colour, which artificially provides nitrogen, a major nutrient required by plants.

Consumption of Fertilisers in India

Like humans, crops need nutrients - primary (N, P, K), secondary (S, calcium, magnesium) and micro (iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum) - for plant growth and grain yield.
Fertilisers are essentially food for crops, which provides essential nutrients to the crops.
High doses of these fertilisers produced more grains and led to the success of the Green Revolution in the 960s.
However, crop yield response to fertiliser use has more than halved over time. For example, 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 disproportionate application of N by farmers.

Two Main Concerns Over Rising Urea Consumption:

India’s nearly 36-mt annual consumption of urea is today next only to China’s 51 mt, with the latter’s production largely coal-based.
- Out of this 36-mt sold last fiscal, imports accounted for 7.6 mt. Even with regard to domestically-manufactured urea, the feedstock used (natural gas) is mostly imported.
The second concern is nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Barely 35% of the N applied through urea in India is actually utilised by crops to produce harvested yields.
- Declining NUE, from an estimated 48% in the early 1960s, has resulted in farmers applying more and more fertiliser for the same yield.

Government Efforts to Reduce Urea Consumption in India

The introduction of the nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime in 2010.
- Under NBS, the government fixed a per-kg subsidy (unlike the earlier product-specific subsidy regime) for each fertiliser nutrient: Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potash (K) and sulphur (S).
- It aims to promote balanced fertilisation by discouraging farmers from applying too much urea (46% N), di-ammonium phosphate (DAP - 46% P plus 18% N) and muriate of potash (MOP - 60% K).
In 2015, the Centre made it mandatory to coat all indigenously manufactured and imported urea with neem oil.
- Consumption did dip in the initial two years, but that trend reversed from 2018-19.
This was followed by replacing 50-kg bags with 45-kg ones in 2018, and the launch of liquid ‘Nano Urea’ by the Indian Farmers’ Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in 2021.
- Liquid nano urea is essentially urea in the form of a nanoparticle aimed at reducing the unbalanced and indiscriminate use of conventional urea, increasing crop productivity, and reducing soil, water, and air pollution.
None of the above government measures for checking illegal diversion for non-agricultural use, increasing nitrogen use efficiency have failed in reducing urea consumption.

What is Urea Gold?

Normal urea contains 46% of a single plant nutrient: Nitrogen or N. Urea Gold has 37% N plus 17% sulphur (S) and aims at two things.
The first is to deliver S along with N. Indian soils are deficient in S, which oilseeds and pulses - the country is significantly import-dependent in both - particularly require.
The second is to improve the NUE of urea. Coating of S over urea ensures a more gradual release of N.
- By prolonging the urea action, the plants stay greener for a longer time - reducing the frequency of application and use of Urea, say, only two bags (against three), for an acre of paddy or wheat.
RCF is yet to commercially introduce Urea Gold or reveal any pricing details.

Main Hurdle in the Fortification of Urea and Way Ahead:

That has to do with pricing. For example, the MRP of Urea Gold is expected to be fixed at Rs 400-500 per 40-kg bag (against around Rs 254 for a 45-kg bag of ordinary neem-coated urea).
The government can probably set free the MRPs for all coated fertilisers.
- Since the regular urea or DAP will continue to be sold at heavily subsidised rates, companies cannot charge too much of a premium on their fortified fertiliser products.
The coating should be carried out at the factory itself, which will guarantee even more uniform distribution of micronutrients and save the farmer the hassles of mixing.

Q1) What is food fortification?

Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of one or more micronutrients (i.e., vitamins and minerals) in a food or condiment to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.

Q2) What is the PM-PRANAM scheme?

The PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) was announced in the Union Budget 2023-24. It aims to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers by incentivizing states to adopt alternative fertilisers.

Source: How to make Urea more efficient as a fertiliser, and why that’s needed