Context:

• The West Asia conflict and rising fuel and fertilizer costs have created an opportunity for India to improve fertilizer use efficiency and reduce excessive demand.
• While India produces about 80% of its urea requirement domestically and is expanding capacity for self-reliance, the sector remains heavily dependent on imported fuel.
• Green ammonia is a possible alternative, but its viability is limited in water-scarce regions.
• The challenge is more severe for phosphatic fertilizers, as India lacks domestic rock phosphate reserves and depends largely on imports.
• Since nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are critical for food security, the government continues to provide heavy subsidies to keep prices affordable.
• However, a significant share of the ₹2 lakh crore annual fertilizer subsidy is effectively wasted due to inefficient use and pollution rather than contributing to food production.

The Fertilizer Trap in India

• Excessive, unbalanced, and inefficient use of fertilizers not only wastes public resources but also harms soil health, water quality, air quality, biodiversity, human health, and contributes to climate change.
• Excess fertilizer use depletes soil organic matter and reduces the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients. This lowers crop productivity over time, forcing farmers to apply even more fertilizers, creating a self-reinforcing “fertilizer trap.”
• This cycle explains why India’s fertilizer demand continues to grow despite decades of increased supply, showing the limitations of a supply-focused approach.
• The focus must shift from simply increasing supply to improving fertilizer use efficiency—either by producing more crop per kilogram of fertilizer used or maintaining yields with lower fertilizer input.

Limits of Existing Policy Measures

• Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) - The government’s nutrient-based subsidy scheme failed to significantly improve efficiency or reduce demand because urea was excluded.
• Neem-Coated Urea - Although introduced to improve nitrogen-use efficiency, neem-coated urea could not prevent substantial nitrogen loss as ammonia emissions, contributing to air pollution.
• Phosphatic Fertilizers - A large share of phosphatic fertilizers is also lost through runoff, contributing to water pollution.

Policy Gaps and the Need for Crop Diversification

• Lack of Coordinated Policy Action
  • Although alternatives such as pulses, leguminous cover crops, manure, compost, and biochar can significantly reduce fertilizer dependence, they are no longer central to India’s farming systems.
  • Policy efforts have remained fragmented, with poor coordination between ministries and departments, preventing an integrated agricultural strategy.
• MSP and Procurement Distort Cropping Choices
  • While the government announces Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for more than 20 crops, effective procurement is largely limited to rice, wheat, and sugarcane.
  • This encourages farmers to focus on these fertilizer-intensive crops, which consume over two-thirds of India’s urea, weakening traditional crop rotations with pulses and legumes.
• Food Surplus but Resource Misallocation
  • India produces far more cereals and sugarcane than domestic requirements:
    • Around 40% of rice output is exported
    • Another 9% is diverted for grain-based bioethanol production
    • India also produces excess wheat and sugarcane
  • This creates competition between food and fuel for land, water, fertilizers, and subsidies, highlighting the need to restrict bioethanol production to molasses or waste biomass instead of food grains.
• Why Pulses Matter?
  • Natural Fertilizer Efficiency - Traditional pulse-cereal rotations sustained agriculture for centuries because legumes naturally fix atmospheric nitrogen, reducing or eliminating the need for urea.
  • Climate and Nutritional Benefits - Pulses are well-suited to rain-fed and drought-prone regions, making them valuable during weak monsoon years. They are also crucial for tackling protein malnutrition, especially in India’s large vegetarian population.
• Declining Pulse Cultivation
  • Cereal-focused policies have reduced pulse cultivation, causing shortages and higher import dependence:
    • India now imports around 20% of its pulses
    • Telangana’s pulse production has halved since statehood
    • Shifting even 20% of rice acreage to pulses could save water, urea, and improve nutrition
• Weak Implementation of Dalhan Aatmanirbharta Mission
  • The Dalhan Aatmanirbharta Mission (2025) promised full MSP procurement for key pulses and allocated ₹11,440 crore to boost production to 350 lakh tonnes annually within five years.
  • However, implementation remains weak:
    • Pulse cultivation area increased by only 1.26% in 2026
    • This is negligible compared to the 10% decline in area between 2021-22 and 2024-25
    • Groundnut sowing rose only 1.3%
  • This highlights the urgent need for stronger policy execution and structural agricultural reforms.

Measures to Enhance Fertilizer Use Efficiency

• Greater Use of Organic Alternatives - India needs to significantly increase the use of manure, compost, and biochar (biogas residue) to reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers and improve soil health.
• Revising Fertilizer Application Practices - Fertilizer recommendations should be redesigned so that organic inputs form the base nutrient dose, with chemical fertilizers used only as supplementary top-ups after exhausting locally available organic sources.
• Evidence from Crop Trials - Coordinated crop trials across India have shown that up to 50% of recommended fertilizer use can be replaced by manure, compost, or biochar without reducing crop yields.
• Need for Better Nutrient-Efficient Crop Varieties - Investment should focus on improving existing crop varieties for better nutrient-use efficiency, rather than relying mainly on expensive technologies or capital-intensive solutions.
  • India’s research indicates that rice germplasm alone has the potential to double nitrogen-use efficiency, measured in terms of grain output per unit of urea applied.
• Need for Institutional Coordination - To ensure coordinated implementation across sectors, the Union government should revive the Inter-ministerial National Nitrogen Steering Committee, whose tenure ended before its recommendations could be implemented.

Conclusion

• India’s food security requires not more fertilizer, but smarter fertilizer use through pulse-based farming, organic inputs, efficient crop varieties, and coordinated long-term agricultural policy reforms.