The Future Ai

In March, domestic urea output had tumbled to around 16 lakh tonnes due to the West Asia conflict disrupting LNG supplies. Up to 97% of natural gas supply has now been restored. In April last year, domestic urea production was close to 22 lakh tonnes.Aparna Sharma, additional secretary in fertiliser ministry, said increased domestic production, robust opening stock and assured imports of soil nutrients will be enough to meet the requirement for kharif crops. She added that since the beginning of conflict, 78 lakh tonnes of fertilizers — urea, Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) or NPKs, and Single Super Phosphate (SSP) — have been added to the stock through domestic production and imports.She said, “Fertilizer availability remains robust, and supplies continue to exceed the requirement.” As of Thursday, the overall stock stood at 193.8 lakh tonnes, which is 50% of the estimated demand of 320 lakh tonnes for the entire kharif season.Government has maintained that despite the spike in global prices of key fertilisers, retail prices have been kept unchanged to ensure farmers don’t get impacted.