NEW DELHI: Government-authorised fertiliser importing agency India Potash Ltd (IPL) has received offers to supply urea in the $935-$959 per tonne range — almost double the rate two months ago — in what is being seen as an indicator of the West Asia conflict’s effect on the key soil nutrient’s prices.In the previous urea tender issued by Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, bids were in the range of $508-$512 per tonne.On the current tender floated by IPL for getting 25 lakh tonnes of urea by June 15, officials said the importing agency will submit the quoted prices ($935-$959 per tonne) before the govt to take a final call. Over two dozen firms, against the IPL bid, have submitted offers to supply around 60 lakh tonnes, but the prices quoted by them are far higher.Meanwhile, amid the ongoing supply disruption and surge in global prices of both urea and DAP, govt is looking at rolling out measures to curb excessive use of the soil nutrients. This includes launching a mobile app which farmers can use to place total requirements in advance. They can get fertiliser bags by completing biometric authentication on the app and it will also alert them not to pick more when the purchase is close to the set limit.
TOI has learnt that to put a system in place to promote rational use of fertilisers, detailed discussions on measures, such as distribution of chemical soil nutrients linked to farmers database and judicious use and awareness for balanced and scientific use of fertilisers, were held at a meeting chaired by cabinet secretary T V Somanathan on Wednesday. Officials from fertiliser, agriculture, financial services, expenditure and legal affairs departments, among others, took part in the deliberations.Govt has maintained there is adequate fertiliser stock for the Kharif sowing season, which is 15% more than that of last year, and it expects to have “comfortable stocks” before the peak Kharif demand in June.This is significant considering that the increasing raw materials for fertilisers and finished products is estimated to push subsidies beyond Rs 2 lakh crore, nearly 20% more than what govt had estimated for FY 2026-27.
People aware of the govt’s proposal said discussions have been going on how to use data of over 85 lakh unique farmers IDs linked to land records under the digital agriculture mission to ascertain fertiliser usage.Trade sources said global urea prices have increased by 35% to $726 per tonne and DAP prices by 15% to $654 per tonne, respectively, since the beginning of the conflict. Nearly 25% of the domestic urea requirement is made from imports.Annually, India imports about 35-40% of all its fertilisers, and Gulf countries account for 40% of these imports. The supplies and LNG supplies used as major feedstock for urea manufacturing have been severely impacted by the closure of Strait of Hormuz.
