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Uncategories Fertilizer Industry UPSC| Industry | geography of India

Fertilizer Industry UPSC| Industry | geography of India

09:56

Table of Contents

  • What is Fertilizer?
  • Macro and Micro Nutrients
  • Features of Fertilizer Industries
  • Development of fertilizer industries in India
  • The raw material for fertilizer industries
  • Fertilizer Production and Consumption Trend
  • Fertilizer industries distribution in India
  • Government policies to promote and govern Fertilizer Industries
  • Environment implications due to fertilizer
  • Present Status


UPSC Question

  • Bring out the trends in the development of the fertilizer industry in India.

What is fertilizer? 

Fertilizers are inorganic nutrients that are produced by chemical industries for the plants to increase productivity.

  • There are 16 nutrients that are essential for overall plant growth. 
  • 6 nutrients required in the large quantity called macronutrients 
  • The other 10 nutrients required in small quantities are called micronutrients


Macronutrients:

  • Nitrogen
  • Phosphorous
  • Potassium
  • Calcium
  • Magnesium
  • Sulfur

Micro Nutrients:

  • Iron
  • Manganese
  • Boron
  • Zink
  • Copper
  • Molybdenum
  • Chlorine

What are fertilizer Industries?

  • Fertilizer industries are chemical industries that come under the MSME category.
  • They use chemical compounds as raw material
  • Finished goods are fertilizers comprised of nutrients for plants.

However, the fertilizer industry does not produce all the 16 nutrients, they mainly produce:

  • Nitrogenous fertilizer; ureas
  • Phosphatic fertilizer and Ammonium Phosphate( DAP)
  • Complex fertilizer; a combination of Nitrogen (N), Phosphate(P), and Potash(K).

The raw material of fertilizer industries:

  • Natural gas-hydro carbon
  • Sulfur
  • Phosphate rock
  • Potassium salt
  • Micronutrients
  • Water
  • Air

We import potash entirely from other countries as potash reserve does not have any reserves.

Development of fertilizer industries in India:

  • 1906 at Ranipet in Tamil Nadu: First fertilizer industry
  • 1966: First large scale ureas plant
  • 1967: DAP plant at Baroda
  •  After 1988 masses scale of nitrogen, phosphorous, potash being reproduced in India,
  • At present, India is third in terms of production and 2nd in the terms of consumption in the world.



Fertilizer Production and Consumption Trend:

As per the Department of Agriculture cooperation and farmer welfare, the following are the fertilizer production and consumption trends in India

Year

Production

in

Million ton

Consumption 

in 

 Million Ton

1960-61

0.1

0.5

2016-17

614

414

2017-18

599

413

2018-19

603

414

Fertilizer industries distribution in India:

After the Green revolution, the fertilizer industry also developed.

  • 50 % of fertilizer production comes from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Kerala

Types of Fertilizer Industries in India:
As per ownership, the following are types of fertilizer;
    • Public sectors fertilizer industry
      • National Fertilizer Limited
      • Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd
    • Cooperative 
      • Indian Farmer fertilizer Cooperative-IFFCO
    • Private fertilizer industry
      • Ajay Farm fertilizer private ltd
      • Balaji fertlizer Private ltd

Government policies to promote and govern Fertilizer Industries:

The following are the government policies:

  • New Pricing Scheme( NPS) of 2002:
    • The subsidy is being provided with a differential amount of cost of production and selling price to fertilizer industries.
  • Nutrient Based Subsidy( NBS) policy, 2010
    • Subsidy fixed on the weight of different macro/micronutrients
  • Neem Coated Ureas Policy, 2015:
    • Mandatory to domestic fertilizer company to neem coating
  • Gas Pooling Policy, 2015:
    • All units will get uniform prices of gas
  • New Urea Policy, 2015:
    • Free transportation of Phosphorous and potassium fertilizer from 2015 to 2019


Environmental implication due to fertilizer industries;

  • Fertilizers are also pollutant water bodies
  • By product of the fertilizer industry is very harmful to the environment:
    • Oxides and sulfur; S02, Co, Nox, Co2, and H2S
  • biomagnification and bioaccumulation of chemical trophic level
  • Usage of fertilizer makes soil infertile in the long run

Present status;
India does not produce sufficient for domestic consumption, the government assured to achieve fertilizer sufficient by 2022 under AatmNirbhar Bharat.

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