India must revisit regulatory regime in fertilizer approval, says Yara’s MD Sanjiv Kanwar

There must be an total evaluation on tips on how to enhance the stability within the system. It’s simple, as a result of after we take a look at the consumption that’s occurring, I believe it’s extra skewed in favour of nitrogen (N) and fewer in favour of phosphorous and potash (P&Okay) — urea costs (MRP) haven’t been elevated for the final 15-20 years and the hole between urea on one hand and DAP and sophisticated (NPK) on the opposite is kind of massive. So the farmer is mostly moving into for extra of urea as in comparison with the P&Okay fertilizers. Value coverage must be redesigned in order that farmers are pushed and inspired to maneuver within the course of balanced crop diet. That’s what may also assist go a good distance in bettering the soil well being of the nation.

Completely. As we go ahead, local weather change is a actuality. Now we have seen it within the final 18 months. We didn’t have sufficient moisture in India. We didn’t have snowfall in north India, within the apple-growing area, and we didn’t have rains as we would have liked within the plains.

We have to have a mixture of mineral fertilizers and bio-fertilizers as a result of each have a job to play, particularly when it’s beneath stress circumstances. So if you apply a very good high quality of bio-stimulant, it helps the crop to battle the abiotic stress that it faces throughout excessive drought circumstances. That additionally helps in bettering or defending farm productiveness.

It has been seen that if manufacturing is greater and folks have plenty of land, they’re able to undertake this type of crop vitamins. I believe we must always remember that the Indian farmer is a enterprise particular person. They take knowledgeable choices. If a product or an idea is making a distinction to bettering the farm productiveness, they may undoubtedly take a choice in favour of such an idea.

During the last 4-5 years, the bio-stimulant market has been rising in India together with the mineral fertilizers. So there may be an acceptance within the thoughts of the farmers to make use of higher high quality merchandise, higher high quality bio-stimulants which are obtainable.

I believe there’s a have to re-look on the regulatory system that we’ve got in place. There’s a World Financial institution report on ease of doing enterprise in agriculture, most likely launched in 2019, simply earlier than Covid pandemic. As per that report, India ranks 97 out of the 101 nations that have been surveyed on the time it takes to get new fertilizers registered in India beneath the Fertilizer Management Order. I believe it takes round 897 days as per the report back to get a brand new product registered in India, which is a really very long time. It’s truly stopping the Indian farmers from accessing revolutionary fertilizer merchandise which are obtainable to their friends within the world market.

For example, if we see one thing which is working very nicely in China, and we need to launch it in India, it can take me 3-4 years to carry it right here. And that’s the hole that builds up between my farmer in India and his friends within the world market, which must be bridged.

All agriculturally superior nations have a common specification of fertilizers — minimal nutrient wanted and most contaminant accepted (no want to use for approval every time). So that’s how the standard of the fertilizer is assured. And it is extremely vital to keep watch over the heavy metals, that’s a contaminant, that ought to not go into the soil. There’s a common specification of fertilizers for water-soluble NPKs and it helped in rising grapes exports out of India.

The perfect method is to take the center path. As a result of somebody who’s doing it proper, additionally must be incentivised. However, let’s say someone is utilizing imbalanced fertilizers. He must be incentivised to change in direction of balanced fertilizers. For example, improve the MRP of urea and no matter improve you’ve got right here, improve the subsidy on P&Okay and sophisticated, in order that total prices of manufacturing stay the identical, and the farmer advantages from that.

I believe the trade is kind of nicely positioned to help progress in agriculture. We’re half and parcel of the agriculture sector in India. If we take a look at what’s occurring, the urea manufacturing has gone up nearly by 6 million tonnes, although principally by the general public sector. There’s additionally elevated manufacturing of phosphatic, advanced. There’s a want for enablers to come back in.

It’s not solely the backed fertilizers which have a job to play in bettering farm productiveness. You want the rules to permit simpler registration of newer fertilizers, bio-stimulants and liquid fertilizers, which is able to go a good distance in bettering farm productiveness. It’s not simply the urea and the advanced which may have an effect on farm productiveness.

After we discuss nano-urea, we have to remember that it has come by means of a fairly rigorous testing course of. It has come by means of ICAR, which has examined it over a interval of 2-3 years. And it’s been launched into the market by a extremely revered fertilizer firm, IFFCO, which has been on the forefront of fertilizer manufacturing in India for the final so a few years now. And it’s a very severe participant. We shouldn’t be very fast to make any judgment name at any level of time, as a result of it takes about 3-4 years for a product to be established and accepted. It’s simply began.