Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India

To ensure the sufficiency of food grains in the country, the Government of India has implemented several fertiliser policies since the 1950s to provide enough quality fertilisers to farmers at affordable prices. These policies influenced the consumption and balanced use of fertiliser nitrogen (N), p...

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Autores principales: Singh, Bijay, Sapkota, Tek Bahadur
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Fertiliser Association of India 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178500
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author Singh, Bijay
Sapkota, Tek Bahadur
author_browse Sapkota, Tek Bahadur
Singh, Bijay
author_facet Singh, Bijay
Sapkota, Tek Bahadur
author_sort Singh, Bijay
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description To ensure the sufficiency of food grains in the country, the Government of India has implemented several fertiliser policies since the 1950s to provide enough quality fertilisers to farmers at affordable prices. These policies influenced the consumption and balanced use of fertiliser nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) depending upon the soil, climate, cropping systems, and cultivated area under irrigation in different regions of the country. On all counts, accomplishment on the production of food grain front has paralleled the consumption of fertilisers since the 1960s. Even though the population of India increased more than three times from 1961 to 2022, per capita availability of rice remained almost the same and that of wheat increased by 3.1 times. In terms of the price of rice and wheat, affordability of urea has continuously increased since the introduction of the retention price scheme but that of P and K fertilisers remains an issue after the decontrol in 1992 for short-term, and implementation of nutrient-based subsidy policy in 2010. Imbalanced use of nutrients in some regions due to excessive application of highly subsidized N through urea or reduced application of expensive P and K fertilisers because of fertiliser policies led to economic losses as well as environmental and climate change hazards due to emission of nitrous oxide or nitrate leaching to water bodies. Foresight in fertiliser policy planning should address environmental and climate change consequences of fertiliser use and management but also ensures food security for the burgeoning population. Suitable policy mechanisms need to be evolved for gradually liberalizing urea while protecting the profits of farmers and affordability of fertilisers P and K should be ensured for the farmers.
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spelling CGSpace1785002025-12-04T02:01:28Z Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India Singh, Bijay Sapkota, Tek Bahadur fertilizers policies environment socioeconomic aspects climate change balanced fertilization food security subsidies affordability To ensure the sufficiency of food grains in the country, the Government of India has implemented several fertiliser policies since the 1950s to provide enough quality fertilisers to farmers at affordable prices. These policies influenced the consumption and balanced use of fertiliser nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) depending upon the soil, climate, cropping systems, and cultivated area under irrigation in different regions of the country. On all counts, accomplishment on the production of food grain front has paralleled the consumption of fertilisers since the 1960s. Even though the population of India increased more than three times from 1961 to 2022, per capita availability of rice remained almost the same and that of wheat increased by 3.1 times. In terms of the price of rice and wheat, affordability of urea has continuously increased since the introduction of the retention price scheme but that of P and K fertilisers remains an issue after the decontrol in 1992 for short-term, and implementation of nutrient-based subsidy policy in 2010. Imbalanced use of nutrients in some regions due to excessive application of highly subsidized N through urea or reduced application of expensive P and K fertilisers because of fertiliser policies led to economic losses as well as environmental and climate change hazards due to emission of nitrous oxide or nitrate leaching to water bodies. Foresight in fertiliser policy planning should address environmental and climate change consequences of fertiliser use and management but also ensures food security for the burgeoning population. Suitable policy mechanisms need to be evolved for gradually liberalizing urea while protecting the profits of farmers and affordability of fertilisers P and K should be ensured for the farmers. 2025-07 2025-12-03T18:13:39Z 2025-12-03T18:13:39Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178500 en Limited Access image/jpeg Fertiliser Association of India Singh, B., & Sapkota, T.B. (2025). Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India. Indian Journal of Fertilisers, 21(7), 616-636.
spellingShingle fertilizers
policies
environment
socioeconomic aspects
climate change
balanced fertilization
food security
subsidies
affordability
Singh, Bijay
Sapkota, Tek Bahadur
Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India
title Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India
title_full Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India
title_fullStr Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India
title_full_unstemmed Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India
title_short Fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in India
title_sort fertiliser policies in ensuring food security and emerging issues in india
topic fertilizers
policies
environment
socioeconomic aspects
climate change
balanced fertilization
food security
subsidies
affordability
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178500
work_keys_str_mv AT singhbijay fertiliserpoliciesinensuringfoodsecurityandemergingissuesinindia
AT sapkotatekbahadur fertiliserpoliciesinensuringfoodsecurityandemergingissuesinindia