India will stop importing urea by the end of 2025: Mansukh Mandaviya
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New Delhi. Chemicals and Fertilizer Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said that India will stop importing urea by the end of 2025. He said a massive push on domestic manufacturing has helped bridge the gap between supply and demand. Mandaviya said that availability of fertilizers is very important for Indian agriculture. He said that the country has been using chemical fertilizers to increase crop production for the last 60-65 years. Now the government is making efforts to promote alternative fertilizers like Nano Liquid Urea and Nano Liquid Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP).
“Use of alternative fertilizers is good for the crop and soil quality,” the minister said. We are promoting it.” When asked about achieving self-reliance in urea production, Mandaviya said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has adopted a two-pronged strategy to eliminate dependence on urea imports. The minister said that the government has restarted four closed urea plants and work is underway to restart another factory. He said that to meet the domestic demand, India requires about 350 lakh tonnes of urea annually.
Mandaviya said the installed domestic production capacity has increased from 225 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to about 310 lakh tonnes. The minister said, “At present the gap between annual domestic production and demand is about 40 lakh tonnes.” He said that after the commissioning of the fifth plant, the annual domestic production capacity of urea will reach about 325 lakh tonnes. There is also a target to replace the use of 20-25 lakh tonnes of conventional urea with nano liquid urea. Mandivya said, “Our aim is very clear. The country’s import dependence for urea will end by the end of 2025.
He stressed that the import bill of urea will be reduced to zero. According to government data, the import of urea has declined to 75.8 lakh tonnes in 2022-23 from 91.36 lakh tonnes last year. Urea import was 98.28 lakh tonnes in 2020-21, 91.23 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 and 74.81 lakh tonnes in 2018-19. Mandaviya said that the Modi government has ensured adequate supply of fertilizers for the agriculture sector in the last 10 years. He said the Center has also protected Indian farmers from the sharp rise in fertilizer prices in global markets by increasing subsidies on key crop nutrients.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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