India seeks to eliminate importing urea fertilizer

 

The South Asian nation, where agriculture makes up about 14 percent of the economy, produced 24.5 million tons of urea in the year ended March 2016, compared with consumption of around 32 million tons during the period, according to data from the fertilizer ministry. The country imported more than a quarter of what it consumed from Oman, China and Iran. 

 

"We are in the process of reviving ailing plants, restart closed units, expand existing projects and build new ones," Dharam Pal, joint secretary at India's fertilizer ministry, said in an interview in New Delhi. "The target is to wipe out urea imports completely by 2022." 

 

Increasing local supplies of the nitrogen fertilizer will help shield farmers against global price fluctuations and limit government subsidies, allowing for greater spending to spur the rural economy. The goal also ties in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to boost domestic manufacturing, as he seeks to create more jobs in the world's second-most populated nation.