Nitrogen Fertilizer use in Indian Agriculture: A Policy Analysis

Abstract

With the introduction of fertilizers responsive HYV varieties of crops intended to increase production to meet the food security of 1.3 billion of its citizens, the trend of increased use of N fertilizers has become a reality of the time. This has resulted in various other health and environment related issues, besides huge financial burden of fertilizer subsidy on Government exchequer. The inherent problem with nitrogen fertilizer lies with its low use efficiency leaving the remaining nitrogen to be washed off and pollute the land, water and air which has become a serious global concern in general and South Asian region in particular. There have been attempts to enhance nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and few European countries have succeeded in doing so. Use of micro-nutrients such as B and Zn, alternating cereals with pulses, balanced use of NPK are some of the experimented and proven approaches to increase NUE and minimise the harmful effects of low NUE. Policies in India w.r.t. fertilizer and agriculture are conducive in increasing the use of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture. It is evident that the problem emerged with excessive use of urea as compared to other phosphorus and potassium based fertilizers resulting in imbalanced use of NPK ratio which has other costs such as environmental, health and huge subsidy burden on Government exchequer. This study reviews the policies around nitrogen fertilizer use and triangulates with secondary data to derive the conclusions on present practice of NPK use and gives constructive suggestions for nitrogen fertilizer use in India.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Fertilizer Policy, Policy Analysis, Fertilizer Uses