India - Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizer ready to support SSP industry: Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya

Date:01-16-2023

The Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) had organized a workshop for the SSP Industry (Single Super Phosphate) in New Delhi. The workshop was organized to revamp the SSP industries as the consumption of SSP by farmers has fallen and manufacturing units are running under capacity. The industry is also exploring possibilities to export SSP to neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. The workshop was attended by 80 participants representing 50 SSP companies across India.

Single Super Phosphate (SSP) has had a bad reputation over the last few years with several quality concerns because of which the farmers have lost trust in the product. Farmers have switched to DAP and are reluctant to go back to SSP usage. About 1 ton of DAP provides the soil with 180 kg of ‘N’ & 460 kg of ‘P’. This deprives the soil of sulphur, magnesium oxide, and calcium. However, using 0.4 tones of Urea and 2.87 tonnes of SSP provides 184 kg of ‘N’, 460 kg of ‘P’, and 316 kg of essential Sulphur. This combination also provides 604 kg of calcium. The combination of urea and SSP will be cheaper by 20% and will also reduce subsidy burden on the government.

SSP POS sales have fallen by 9.28% as of November 2022 when compared to November 2021 from 42.66 lakh tonnes to 38.70 lakh tonnes. At the same time, DAP sales have increased by 18.53% from 70.47 lakh tonnes to 83.53 lakh tonnes.

Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers said, ″It is important to win back the trust of the farmers for SSP. The government is ready to support the industry in all possible ways. The SSP industry has to ensure the supply of good quality products as per FCO specifications. All the SSP manufacturing units must establish a state-of-the-art laboratory (NABL accredited) on the premises to ensure quality. All checks and balances must be carried out at the level to be doubly sure that the final product does not have any lapses. In addition, the companies must work on marketing the product well and generating demand.″

The Minister also suggested setting up an SSP park, one at each Visakhapatnam (East Coast) and Dahej (West Coast) to scale up the production of SSP for local as well as export. The industry should come forward with the proposal and the department of fertilizers willing to extend full support in this direction. This would help to have the raw material purchases at competitive prices and better monitoring and control being in one place.

Director General of FAI, Mr. Arvind Chaudhary said, ″The SSP industry will restructure and work on the suggestions made by the Minister during the workshop. The industry body FAI will try to meet in the next few months and update the ministry on the progress and seek support required.″