Department of Fertilizers

 

Department of Fertilizers

 

Availability of Fertilizers:

The availability of all the fertilizers viz. Urea, DAP, MOP & NPK has been comfortable all across the country. Despite increase in sales and lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak, Department of Fertilizers ensured comfortable availability and smooth supply of all the fertilizers, particularly urea, especially during a productive agriculture season which has witnessed good monsoons. DoF has been importing Urea from time to time to address the field requirement adequately and timely.

Production of Fertilizers 1.4.2020 to 15.12.2020

(Fig in LMT)

 

Year	Urea	DAP	NPKS	SSP	P&K	Total
2020-21 (upto 15.12.2020	177.87	28.46	70.44	36.10	134.99	312.86

 

 

Import of Fertilizers from 1.4.2020 to 15.12.2020

(Fig in LMT)

 

Year	Urea	DAP	MOP	NPKS	P&K	Total
2020-21 (upto 15.12.2020	86.75	43.57	30.93	10.04	84.54	171.29

 

Sales of Fertilizers1.4.2020 to 15.12.2020

(Fig in LMT)

 

Year	Urea	DAP	MOP	NPKS	P&K	Total
2020-21 (upto 15.12.2020	243.31	95.92	23.39	88.54	207.85	451.16

 

 

Subsidy Release from 1.1.2020 to 11.12.2020

 

Nutrient Based Subsidy	(Rs in Crore)
Indigenous P&K	8514.71
Imported P&K	7257.71
City Compost	29.00
Total Nutrient Based Subsidy	15801.96
Urea Subsidy
Indigenous Urea	35077.95
Imported Urea	18867.54
DBT (Office Expenses)	0.99
DBT (Professional Service)	4.27
Total Urea Subsidy	53950.75

 

DBT for Fertilizer Subsidy Payments

DBT for fertilizer subsidy has been introduced w.e.f 01.03.2018. DBT version of 2.0 was introduced w.e.f May 2019. As part of this DBT 3.0 version, the fertilizers dashboard www.urvarak.nic.in was introduced, which gives real time data and quantities of fertilizers produced / imported, stock position at national, state, district and retailer level and supply and availability at all levels. Further modified version of DBT 3.1 version was introduced w.e.f 30.09.2020.

SMS gateway system has been developed (on 30.09.2020) where the farmer and general public can get the status of stock position with each and every retailer. On a pilot basis, home delivery of fertilizers has been introduced (on 30.09.2020) in the State of Andhra Pradesh. For this purpose, the State Government of Andhra Pradesh has established 11,641 (approx.) RythuBarosaKendras.

Impact:

• A robust platform to track end to end movement, stock and sale position of various fertilizers.
• Prevented diversion of fertilizers enroute till the retailer point.
• It facilitated 100% online creation and submission of subsidy bills and their processing in a transparent manner.
• It facilitated faster processing of payment of subsidy bills. The online tracking of the bills by the Fertilizer Companies is under development. This will eliminate personal contact of fertilizer companies with the bill processing functionaries of Department of Fertilizers.
• Online and real time information to the farmers regarding availability of fertilizers through SMS gateway and Urvarak Dashboard.
• Prevention of diversion by enquiring into the Top-20 buyers of each district and imploring the State and district authorities to take action against the defaulted retailers and companies under the FCO, 1985.

Efforts to Prevent Diversion and Leakage:

Fertilizers dashboard – e-urvarak

In order to provide real-time information about the position of supply/availability/ requirement of various fertilizers at National, State and District levels, DoF has developed various dash-boards. These dash-boards provide various reports namely Fertilizer Stock position (overall and production) at Ports, at plants, in States and at district levels. And proportionate requirement for the season and availability of stocks at various levels as well. It also provide information on top 20 buyers, frequent buyers and retailers not selling fertilizers

This is a new milestone in the Fertilizer Sector which will help in assessing the overall demand and supply, facilitate day to day decision making and take necessary corrective measures in streamlining the Fertilizer consumption vis-a-vis the demand. The dashboard also helps in end to end real-time monitoring of the availability and sale of fertilizers within the State.

Top 20 buyers – verification and analysis of District-wise consumption – special emphasis on border districts and districts having chemical units.

A campaign was launched with the help of the State Governments to verify district wise top 20 urea purchasers of Khariff 2020 in 22 major agricultural states in order to prevent hoarding, black marketing, over pricing and diversion.

Among the steps taken, top 20 buyers for each district are displayed on the dash board, DMs of all districts were mobilized, 22 Central Nodal Officers appointed to monitor the verification and 12866 top buyers were investigated. 5146 buyers (40%) were found genuine buyers (they purchased on behalf of other farmers), 5017 notices were issued to dealers and 376 black marketers were also issued notices, 1262 retailer licenses were cancelled / suspended and 227 FIRs were lodged.

The impact of the campaign was that the number of fertilizer buyers went up from 5.56 crore as on 1.4.2020 to 7.51 crore by end of October, 2020. There was reduction in consumption of urea in border districts (17.93% in UP and 18.34% in Bihar) against 17.5% nationwide. The prices of plywood went up due to application of costly Technical Grade Urea. A clear message that purchasers can be tracked and action can be taken against illegal purchase / use / export has been conveyed.

States have been asked to specially monitor the consumption of urea in districts with international border and district having chemical units which may use subsidized urea as an input. It has been made or ongoing exercise.

Removal of Ambiguities in the Modified NPS-III for Determination of Fixed Costs for the Urea Units

• With the approval of CCEA, the Department vide notification dated 30^th March, 2020 removed the ambiguities in the Modified NPS-III for determination of fixed costs for the urea units.
• This will facilitate smooth implementation of Modified NPS-III which will result in grant of Additional Fixed Cost of Rs.350/MT to 30 Urea units and grant of special compensation of Rs. 150/MT to Urea units which are more than 30 years old and converted to gas which will incentivize these units to remain viable for sustained production.
• It will also facilitate continued operations of the urea units resulting in sustained and regular supply of Urea to the farmers.

Policy for Re-Imbursement of Freight Subsidy for Coastal Shipping

• To enhance the use of coastal shipping as an additional mode of transportation to supplement the rail and road movement, the policy for reimbursement of freight subsidy for distribution of subsidized fertilizers through coastal shipping or / and inland waterways was announced on 17.6.2019 and 18.9.2019.
• During 2019-20, 1.14 LMT of fertilizers have been moved through coastal shipping.

Policy for Promotion of City Compost

Department of Fertilizers has introduced Policy on Promotion of City Compost 10.2.2016. Under the policy, Marketing Development Assistance (MDA) of Rs. 1500/- provided for marketing the City Compost through Urban Local Bodies. This promotes the Swatch Bharat Mission as well as organic fertilizers to reduce the adverse impact of chemical fertilizers in the country. Year-wise amount released and sales is given as under:

 

Year	Total sale (in MT)	MDA released (in crore)
2016-17	96584.00	0.55
2017-18	199061.91	7.26
2018-19	306630.47	10.00
2019-20	324598.45	32.00
2020-21 (April-Oct)	199382.12	23.36

 

Joint Fertilizer Application Awareness Programme

With the objective of disseminating knowledge on optimum usage of fertilizer nutrients and to make farmers aware of new developments in the field of fertilizer usage and management, DoF, DAC&FW and DARE (ICAR) jointly organised Fertilizer Application Awareness Programme on 22^nd October, 2019. 683 KVKs were involved and 1,12,553 farmers participated in the programme.

Due to Covid 19 pandemic, such awareness campaign has been redesigned as outreach programmes through Video Conferences with the State Agriculture Departments and other stakeholders.

Promoting New and Innovative Fertilizers

DoF in collaboration with DAC&FW and DARE is engaged in validating and ways to promote new and innovative chemical fertilizers. Candidate fertilizers are: controlled release urea, nitrogen solution and anhydrous ammonia, ammonium poly phosphate solution, water soluble and liquid fertilizers and nano fertilizers.In addition, there are non-chemical fertilizers / alternative / compostable / organic fertilizers like bio-fertilizers, compost, biogas slurry etc. These fertilizers have the potential to significantly reduce use of chemical fertilizers.For this purpose, an expert group under the banner of ChintanShivir under the chairmanship of Minister of State (C&F) was constituted on 4th May 2020. This expert group has finalised its recommendations.

Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals

Scheme for setting up Plastic Parks

1. The scheme aims at setting up of need based plastic parks, an ecosystem with state-of-the-art infrastructure and enabling common facilities through cluster development approach, to consolidate and synergize the capacities of the domestic downstream Plastic Processing industry. The larger objective of the scheme is to contribute to the economy by increasing investment, production, expo( in the sector and also generation of employment.
2. Under the scheme, the Government of lndia provides grant funding up to 50% of the project cost, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 40 crore per project. The remaining project cost is funded by the State Government or state industrial Development Corporation or similar agencies of State Government, beneficiary industries and loan from financial institutions.
3. Under the Scheme, 6 Plastic Parks have been approved in the states of Madhya Pradesh (two), Odisha, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Assam. Out of these parks, two parks have almost achieved 100% progress in terms of development of physical infrastructure. The brief of these two parks is provided below:

 

1. 1. Tamot Plastic Park, Madhya Pradesh: The plastic park approved in 2013 with a total project cost of Rs. 108 cr. The plastic park has completed 100% physical infrastructure in 2020. The authorities has allotted 8 plots in the park to the industry and one unit is already functional in the plastic park.

 

 

1. 2. Paradeep Plastic Park, Odisha: The plastic park was approved in 2013 with a total project cost of approx. Rs. 107 cr. The plastic park has almost completed 100% physical infrastructure in 2020. The authorities has allotted 7 plots in the park to the industry.

 

Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs)

 

• At present, four Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs) policies are being implemented in the States of Andhra Pradesh (Vishakhapatnam), Gujarat (Dahej), Odisha (Paradeep) and Tamil Nadu (Cuddalore and Nagapattinam) to promote investment and industrial development in these sectors.
• Once fully established, these four PCPIRs are expected to attract investment of around Rs. 7.63 lakh crore. As per data available from State Governments, investments worth Rs. 2.12 lakh crore approximately have been made / committed in these regions. The four PCPIRs are expected to generate employment for around 33.83 lakh persons. Around 3.50 lakh persons have been employed in direct and indirect activities related to PCPIRs. PCPIRs promotes the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical sectors in an integrated and environmental friendly manner on a large scale. PCPIRs are envisioned with high-class common infrastructure and support services to provide a competitive environment conducive for setting up businesses.