India to become a urea surplus state soon: Govt

The country will produce 20 lakh tonnes additional urea this year, said Fertilizer Minister

India will soon become an urea surplus state from a deficit state and start exporting it, Union Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar said today.

Kumar told Lok Sabha during question hour that the country will produce 20 lakh tonnes additional urea this year after a number of pro-active steps, including revival of defunct fertilizer plants, taken by the government.

"We will soon become a urea surplus country from a urea deficit country as we are going to produce 20 lakh tonnes additional urea this year. We will start exporting urea soon," he said.

The Minister said there was no crisis of fertilizer anywhere in the country and all states and union territories were satisfied with its availability.

"There is no shortage of fertilizers during the current sowing season," he said.

Further, to ensure adequate availability of fertilizers, Fertilizers Ministry has taken a number of steps that include assessment of month-wise demand, regular monitoring of movement of all major subsidised fertilizers throughout the country by a web-based monitoring system besides others, he said. PTI ACB