Fertilizers consumption scenario and nutrient demands

Fertilizers consumption scenario and nutrient demands

The fertilizer use in India increased significantly in the last 40 years from 9.4 kg/ha in 1967-68 to 117 kg/ha in 2007-08 which contributed to increase in agricultural production by 50 to 60%. However, there is a wide variation in use of fertilizers among states and regions and has remained concentrated in irrigated areas which constitute only 40% of the total cropped area. Among the major states, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab consume high levels of fertilizers. After remaining subdued for few years, fertilizer consumption increased since 2003-04 from 16.2 M tons to 23 M tons in 2007-08.

The fertilizer consumption varies significantly from state to state and spatially. It was >150 kg/ha in North and South zones compared to 104 and 83 kg/ha, respectively in East and West zones. Among the states, the highest per-hectare consumption is in Punjab (210 kg) followed by Andhra Pradesh (200 kg) (Table)

Out of 466 districts, 25% of total fertilizer use is consumed in 37 districts, 50% in 102 districts and 75% in 202 districts. In 65% of districts less than 100 kg nutrients/ha are used, 100-200 kg/ha in 28%of districts and more than 200kg/ha in only 7 per cent of the districts. Consumption ratio of primary plant nutrients (NPK) also shows large variability (FAO, 2005). Regionally the consumption of nutrients in north zone acutely skewed towards N in relation to K (103:32:5.3 kg NPK/ha) compared to south and east zone (60:26:19 and 49:16:11 kg NPK/ha, respectively) while it is more serious at the state and district levels.

Fertilizer use has been increasing more so in the irrigated systems from 65 % of the total in 1986-87 to 75 % in 2000-02, and with increasing use of HYVs. Bulk of the fertilizers (nearly 72 %) is used for food grain crops, 9% for oil seeds followed by sugarcane (5%), vegetables (4%), spices and cotton (3 % each) and fruits (2%). Major share is accounted for paddy (37%) and wheat (24%) among food crops. On an average farmers applied 126 kg/ha of NPK to rice in 2001-02 in the ratio of 4.3: 1.7: 1. In irrigated areas it was about 165 kg/ ha for paddy and 132 kg/ha in the ratio of 24:10:1. Under rice-wheat cropping system, the per-hectare consumption of nutrients in the IGP on an average is about 334 kg (range 258 to 444 kg) approximately @ 118, 36 and 11 kg/ha for each crop which show a decreasing trend west to east.