Urea imports down by 18% at 16.65 LT in Apr-Jul

Amid fall in sowing area and forecast of below normal monsoon this year, urea imports have decreased by 18% to 16.65 lakh tonnes in the first four months of 2014-15.

Urea imports stood at 20.30 lakh tonnes in the same April-July period of 2013-14, according to official data.

As on July 25, acreage of kharif crops was down by 27% at 53.32 million hectares, compared to 72.91 million hectares in the year-ago period.

Sowing of kharif crop begins with the onset of southwest monsoon in June and farmers normally start preparing fields before the arrival of rains.

Urea is imported by three STEs (state trading enterprises) - Indian Potash Ltd (IPL), MMTC and STC on behalf of the government to meet domestic shortfall. The country produces about 22 million tonnes against an annual domestic demand of 30 million tonnes (MT).

Besides these three STEs, the government also imports urea from OMIFCO, which is a joint venture project of IFFCO and Kribhco, with an offtake agreement.

India's urea imports have decreased 12% to 7.08 MT in the year 2013-14, due to carry over stocks from the previous year. The country had imported 8.04 MT of urea in the entire 2012-13 fiscal.

Urea is provided to farmers at a fixed subsidised maximum retail price (MRP) of Rs 5,360 per tonne. The difference between the cost of production and MRP of urea is provided as subsidy to the manufacturers.

The government is also working on to revive the closed domestic fertiliser units to increase the domestic production of soil nutrient.

Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar had also said his aim is to make the country self-reliant on widely-used soil nutrient.

Kumar had also assured the farmers that there will not be any shortage of urea in the ongoing kharif season.