Paradigm shift in Fertilizer Sector in India

G.C.SHROTRIYA Chief Manager (Agri. Services) IFFCO, New Delhi

ABSTRACT

Fertilizer production and consumption in India has increased manifold during the past five decades. Country has become almost self -sufficient in nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers . Imports of urea and DAP have declined to almost negligible quantities. The entire potassic requirement is met through imports as there are no natural deposits of potash in India . Due to sufficient indigenous capacity of nitrogen fertilizer, it has been decided that no new capacity in urea production will be for the next three years, however, possibilities of joint ventures abroad is being explored in countries where raw material and energy is available at low cost, for all fertilizers. Feed stock option in the country is also under review as natural gas position is not comparable and recent expansion projects have dual arrangements for both, natural gas and naphtha. A possibility of importing LNG and making it available for existing and future urea plant is also under considerations. Subsidy burden on fertilizer has expanded to unbearable limits. Even after decontrol of P&K fertilizers the amount of subsidy and concessions are swelling. Government is considering complete decontrol of fertilizer sector by 2005-2006. Urea, DAP, SSP and MOP are the most commonly used fertilizers. Use of complex fertilizers is also growing. There is vast distribution net work of fertilizer distribution well spread through out the country, however, NE region and states of Bihar, Orissa, M.P, Rajasthan need further intensification of distribution. Innovations and introduction of modified or new fertilizer material is also required to meet the specific needs and for improving fertilizer use efficiency. Promotion of fertilizer use will require emphasis on popularizing use in low consumption areas and fruit and vegetables crops, balanced and efficient fertilizer use, integrated nutrient management, micro nutrient application, soil testing and extension services including information technology
Introduction Fertilizer is key input in enhancing crop production. Fertilizer consumption and food grain production is closely correlated (Table 1). Presently fertilizer contributes about 50% to the total increase in food grain production. Increasing pressure of population and shrinking land resources demand for vertical expansion of agriculture where the role of fertilizers will further increase. At the present level of nutrition, additional 150 million tons of food grain production has to be achieved to feed almost 1.5 billion people by 2040. This estimate does not include demand for animal feed, which will rise due to depleting grasslands. Thus, the crusade of higher production of food grain has to continue with increased vigour using fertilizers along with the other sources of plant nutrients.

Table -1. All India Fertilizer Consumption and Food grain Production (Million tons) Year 1951-52 1961-62 1971-72 1981-82 1991-92 2000-2001 Fertilizer Consumption (N+P205+K20) 0.05 0.34 2.66 6.07 12.73 16.63 Food grain Production 51.99 82.71 105.17 133.30 168.37 196.07

Production of Fertilizers India has become third largest country with a total capacity of 11.757 million tons of N and 5.056 million tons of P2O5 in year 2000-2001. Domestic production of nitrogenous fertilizers was 10.942 million tons in 2000-2001, whereas production of phosphatic fertilizers was 3.734million tons (Table 2), which are marginally high, compared to last years production. All India capacity utilization has gradually improved over the years and was maintained at almost cent per cent level. However, during 200001 restrictions were imposed on capacity utilization for Urea at 92% as a consequence the production of urea declined. The increase in production of total N is observed due to increase in production of DAP and other complexes which also have 'N'. Production of DAP during 2000-01 was 10 % higher compared to previous year (Table 3).

Table - 2. Capacity and Production of N and P Fertilizers in India (000 tons) Year Capacity Production N P N P 1995-96 8,998 2,924 8,768 2,593 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-2001 9,332 9,987 10,571 11,078 11,757 2,948 3,165 3,206 3,932 5,016 8,593 10,083 10,477 10,873 10,942 2,578 3,058 3,181 3,447 3,734

Table 3. Production of Urea and DAP in India (000 tons) Year Urea 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-2001 15,805 15,628 18,594 19,292 19,807 19,623

DAP 2,645 2,765 3,665 3,864 3,861 4,881

Imports of Fertilizers

The gap between demand and domestic supply is met through imports. Imports of urea have declined substantially during the past five years (Table 4). There has been virtually no imports of urea during 2000-01.except some quantity for captive consumption. India is presently self sufficient in respect of urea and DAP. The entire quantity of potash is imported, mostly as MOP. Table 4. Imports of Fertilizers: 1995-96 - 1999-2000 (000 tons) Year Urea DAP MOP 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-2001 3,782 2,328 2,389 556 533 65 1,475 475 1,536 2,091 3,268 861 2,356 110 2,380 2,579 2,946 2,577

Growth in Fertilizer Industry Fertilizer production is capital intensive and presently the cost of production of indigenous material is high and returns on investment are low. The Indian fertilizer industry, which achieved phenomenal growth in eighties, witnessed decline in the growth rate during the nineties. In the recent past, the fertilizer industry has not attracted any significant investment. Due to sufficient indigenous capacity and low international prices of urea the Government of India in Feb. 2000 decided that no new grassroots projects will be allowed during the next three years. Even if the Government reviews its decision, the earliest a project could start would be by 2004-05. Lack of availability of natural gas in the country has prompted investors to collaborate for joint ventures abroad for urea production. Gulf countries, due to abundant availability of gas, nearness to Indian shores and investment friendly environment, are becoming the first choice for joint ventures. Government is keen on implementation of Indo-Oman Fertilizer Project. The financial closure is expected by October 2001 and the commercial production will begin 36 months after that. India will purchase the entire production of 1.65 million tons per annum of urea, from this project on long term basis. As India does not have significant high-grade rock phosphate reserve, it is mainly dependent on import of either rock phosphate or phos acid or DAP. Most of the capacity of DAP is based on imported phos acid and ammonia. There has been some new capacity addition for NP/NPK complexes by way of importing rock phosphate and converting it to phos acid and then to DAP/NPK or production of phos acid at rock phosphate mines abroad in JV and importing phosphoric acid for further conversion to DAP/NPK. Apart from the existing joint venture plants for phosphoric acid in Senegal, Jordan and Morocco, some more JV projects are under negotiation. Feed Stock Option Natural gas is the most efficient and economical feed stock for urea. Most urea plants are based on natural gas as feedstock followed by naphtha. Shortage of natural gas is compelling even the existing gas based fertilizer plants to shift towards the use of naphtha thereby increasing the cost of production. The expansion projects implemented recently have dual feed arrangements, both for natural gas and naphtha. Presently about 49 per cent of the total existing urea capacity is through natural gas while naphtha and fuel oil account for 30 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Thus, 89 per cent of the total urea capacity is based on hydrocarbon feed stocks and the remaining 11 per cent on others. LNG is also being considered as feed stock for the existing and future urea plants.

In the background paper on long term policy in fertilizer sector it is recommended that naphtha and fuel oil based plants should switch over to LNG during next five years. LNG is likely to be imported in India from Iran through pipeline via Pakistan. Fertilizer Consumption Fertilizer nutrients (N+P2O5+K2O) consumption in India, in the past 50 years, has increased manifold and reached a record level of 18.128 million tons during 20002001. However, the consumption of all the three nutrients declined during 2000 _2001 and total consumption dropped to 16.631 million tons (Table 5). Urea and DAP are the most popular fertilizers, accounting for 53 and 18 per cent respectively, of the total fertilizer material consumed in the country. NPK grades which can help in promoting balanced fertilization, constitute less than 7 per cent of the total fertilizer materials (Table 6). Fertilizer use in India is mainly limited to Urea, DAP, MOP and SSP. Elsewhere in the world the specialty products such as completely soluble solid fertilizers for drip irrigation and efficient products like USG, Coated urea etc. are used. New research and development activities are required to be encouraged in the areas of new product, energy saving, alternate feedstock etc. Without R & D efforts Indian fertilizer industry will continue to employ stereo type operations and there will be little innovation.

Table- 5. All India Consumption of Plant Nutrients (Million tons) YEAR 1950-51 1960-61 1970-71 1980-81 1990-91 2000-2001 . N 0.055 0.210 1.487 3.678 7.799 10.861 P2O5 0.008 0.053 0.462 1.213 3.221 4.212 K2O 0.006 0.029 0.228 0.623 1.328 1.557 TOTAL 0.069 0.292 2.177 5.515 12.546 16.631

Consumption of fertilizer nutrients per hectare of gross cropped area in India is around 87 kg/ha (Table7), which is low almost 1/4 - 1/3 to of Netherlands, Korea, Japan and Belgium. Even, Within the country, there is large variation in fertilizer use amongst different States (Table 9). Fertilizer consumption is higher than 500 kg/ha in the states of Delhi and Pondicherry and lower than 10 kg/ha in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim.

Table- 6. Consumption of Fertilizer Material in India (000 tons)

FERTILIZER UREA AS ACl CAN SSP MOP SOP DAP ROCK 10-26-26 12-32-16 14-28-14 14-35-14 15-15-15 16-20 7-17-17 19-19-19 20-20 23-23 28-28 TOTAL

QUANTITY 20342 638 76 347 3535 2086 17 6935 121 532 499 11 185 342 220 682 126 1535 222 173 38624

PER CENT 52.67 1.65 0.19 0.89 9.15 5.40 0.04 17.95 0.31 1.37 1.29 0.03 0.47 0.88 0.56 1.76 0.32 3.97 0.57 0.44 100

(Provisional 1999 2000)

Table 7. All India Consumption of Plant Nutrients per unit of Gross Cropped Area (kg/ha)

YEAR 1951-52 1961-62 1971-72 1981-82 1991-92 2000-01

N 0.44 1.60 10.88 23.02 44.15 56.9

P2O5 0.05 0.39 3.38 7.48 18.22 22.1

K2O 0.06 0.18 1.82 3.83 7.47 8.2

Total 0.55 2.17 16.08 34.33 69.84 87.2

Table - 8. All India Plant Nutrient Consumption Ratio YEAR N P2O5 1951-52 7.9 0.9 1961-62 8.9 2.2 1971-72 6.0 1.9 1981-82 6.0 1.9 1991-92 6.0 2.9 2000-2001 7.0 2.7

K2O 1 1 1 1 1 1

The ideal N:P:K ratio, aggregated for the country as a whole, is 4:2:1. However, during 1992-93, after decontrol of phosphatic and potassic fertilizers, the NPK consumption ratio distorted to 9.5:3.2:1.the ratio continues to be quite wide at 7.0:2.7:1 in 2001 (Table 8), N/ K2O ratio is widest in the State of Haryana and narrowest in the State of Kerala (Table 9). Such imbalance application of fertilizer is bound to affect the crop productivity and soil fertility in the long run. The crop response to fertilizer use which was estimated at 12 kg foodgrain per kg of nutrient use is now restricted to 8 kg foodgrain per kg of nutrients. The crop response is likely to go down further to six kg per kg of nutrient use. The losses of nutrients occur through leaching, volatilization, run off, fixation etc. The losses have to be arrested by adopting best method of agriculture packages or precision farming. Besides imbalance use of NPK, deficiencies of other secondary and micronutrients are also becoming apparent now. The concept of balance fertilizer application therefore has to consider these elements, particularly sulphur, zinc and iron. Low organic matter content in Indian soils and lack of adequate sources for micronutrients make it imperative to increase use of organic sources like FYM, green manure, bio-gas slurry etc. There is a need to practice Integrated Plant Nutrient Supply System (IPNS) to bring back the balance in soil fertility and fertilizer use.

Table 9. Consumption of N+P2O5+K2O per unit of gross cropped area and Use ratio in India (1999 -2000) State N + P2O5+ K2O consumption ( kg/ha) N:P2O5:K2O consumption ratio

Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Sikkim Tripura West Bengal Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Punjab Uttar Pradesh Delhi Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Kerala TamilNadu Pondicherry Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Rajasthan Goa

2.54 27.66 97.19 91.99 16.27 20.55 3.55 43.83 6.19 19.45 135.97 148.47 39.43 58.24 184.57 125.38 416.96 157.99 103.11 69.99 162.91 529.98 87.77 47.19 88.87 39.50 44.11

3.4 : 1.4 : 1 2.7 : 1.3 : 1 11.1 : 3.3 : 1 12.3 : 2.1 : 1 15.3 : 9.0 : 1 1.3 : 1.6 : 1 13.0 : 9.5 : 1 4.5 : 1.4 : 1 6.2 : 4.3 : 1 7.5 : 2.0 : 1 2.7 : 1.5 : 1 128.3: 43.5: 1 6.9 : 1.4 : 1 44.3 : 14.7 : 1 40.9 : 12.6 : 1 21.0 : 6.8 : 1 56.4 : 14.8 : 1 6.5 : 3.0 : 1 3.1 : 1.7 : 1 1.1 : 0.5 : 1 2.1 : 0.8 : 1 2.4 : 1.1 : 1 9.1 : 3.8 : 1 10.4 : 6.6 : 1 4.9 : 2.4 : 1 87.9 : 38.5: 1 1.9 : 0.9 : 1

Fertilizer use in Horticultural Crops Horticultural crops have tremendous potential for fertilizer use. However, application of fertilizers to plantation, fruits and vegetable crops, though not uncommon, has been accounted. Based on recommended doses of fertilizer for different fruit crops, requirement of 826 thousand tons of N, 570 thousand tons of P205 and 115 thousand tons of K20 for the year 2000 has been projected. Similarly, 744 thousands tons N, 372 thousand tons of P205 and 272 thousand tons of K20 for vegetable crops has also been projected. Thus, fruits and vegetable together have a potential requirement of 2.90 million tons of major nutrients. Horticultural crops are heavy feeders of plant nutrients and a number of crops may absorb 500-1000 kg of N + P 205+K20/ha/year or even more under good management conditions. Nutrient uptake by many fruits and vegetable crops is equal to or high than that of cereal crops (Table 10). To replenish the removal and to supply sufficient amount of nutrients at each stage of crop growth, adequate rates are needed in the fertilizer application programme of horticultural crops. Fertilizer applications to many horticultural crops have been arbitrary and often erratic. Many fruit crops, like Mango and Guava hardly receive any fertilizer. Whereas, a survey of Vineyard in Maharashtra and Karnataka has indicated excessive use amounting to 3000 kg of nutrient/ha which has led to loss of quality, pollution of ground water and development of salinity in poorly drained soils. In view of the growing importance of horticultural crops both for home consumption and export, the question of adequate fertilizer management is of special significance.

Table 10. Nutrient Removal by some Fruits and Vegetable Crops (kg/ha). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crop Yield (t/ha) N P205 K20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Apple 25 100 45 180 Banana 40 250 60 1000 Citrus 30 100 60 350 Grape 20 170 60 220 Mango 15 100 25 110 Papaya 50 90 25 130 Pineapple 50 185 55 350 Cabbage 70 370 85 480 Carrot 30 125 55 200 Cauliflower 50 250 100 350 Cucumber 40 70 50 120 Egg Plant 60 175 40 300 Okra(bhindi) 20 60 25 90 Onion & Garlic 35 120 50 160 Spinach 25 120 45 200 Tomato 50 140 65 190 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secondary and Micro nutrients

The entire scenario of fertilizer is presently limited to the three primary nutrients N, P and K. Deficiency of secondary and micronutrients is also not uncommon, particularly that of secondary nutrient sulphur and micro nutrient zinc. Such deficiencies are primarily occurring in the intensively cultivated areas. Meager information is available on supply and consumption of secondary and micro nutrient fertilizers. Micronutrient demand for future has been calculated using sufficiency and maintenance approach. The sufficiency approach has merit as it takes into account the nutrient demand of the soil, optimum fertilizer recommendation for maximum crop response and residual effect. Estimates based on sufficiency approach showed that the requirement, calculated on the basis that only 25% area requires micro-nutrient application, will be for Zn 324, Fe 33, Cu 3, and Mn 6 thousand tons by the year 2025. Currently statistics is not available about the actual amount of secondary and micronutrients being used by various states, though several states are using various amounts of solid or liquid micro nutrient products. Efforts are needed to collect reliable data about secondary and micro nutrient production and use.

Table 11. No. Of Fertilizer sales points and their spread

States No. fertilizer Sale points No. village No. holdings (000) Area (000HA)

Assam Bihar

5;665 15,863

28,590 77,697

2523 12966

3205000 10743

Manipur Meghalaya Nagaland Orissa Sikkim Tripura W.B Arunachal Mizoram Haryana H.P J&K Punjab U.P Delhi A.P. Karnataka Kerala T.N. Pondicherry Gujarat M.P. Maharashtra Rajasthan Goa All India

514 416 38 16891 134 389 35,329 270 57 7191 2908 2000 8752 71334 219 17933 11524 3285 17443 176 11027 12841 27571 10214 332 280,397

2,212 5629 1225 51057 453 856 40867 3649 787 6988 19388 12795 123,950 28002 29193 1384 16780 18509 76220 43025 39810 369 627,614

142 171 142 3948 52 318 6284 1530 834 1217 1117 20074 9296 5776 4181 7999 3517 8401 9470 5107 106,637

175 302 968 5298 111 308 5656 3711 1010 1014 4033 17986 14460 12321 1805 7474 10292 22111 20925 20971 165,507

The installed production capacity of Zinc Sulphate, the most in demand straight micro nutrient fertilizer, is about two-lac tons/annum. However, production of zinc sulphate is 30-40% of the installed capacity. The demand as assessed is still to be realised at field level.

Fertilizer Distribution Channel Fertilizers are produced or imported at about 200 locations in the country and distributed among the farmers scattered through the length and breadth of the country in about 6,27,000 villages through a net work comprising of private and institutional channels. Some quantities are also made available through the manufacturers own outlets. Private trade accounts for about 70% of the total fertilizers distributed in the country, followed by institutional agencies at 30%, and marginal quantities are distributed through manufacturers own outlets. Among the institutional agencies, cooperatives happen to be the main distribution agencies. The total number of fertilizer sale points in India is more than 2,80,000 out of which about 72,580(26%) are institutional agencies sale points (mainly cooperatives and remaining 2,07,818 (74%) are controlled by the private trade. On an average one-fertilizer sale point covers more than two villages. States of Kerala, Tamilnadu and Haryana have more number of sales point compared to number of villages. NE states, Bihar, Orissa, H.P., M.P., Rajasthan have very thin spread

of sale points and on an average one sale point covers more than three villages. Distribution network in these states require intensification. Subsidy on Fertilizers Subsidy on fertilizers was introduced with the intention that Indian farmers will get fertilizers at affordable and uniform price. However, increasing use of fertilizers increased the subsidy burden on the government exchequer to the unbearable extend. In August 1992 subsidy on phosphatic and potassic fertilizers was withdrawn. As a consequence of this, price of phosphatic fertilizers almost doubled and that of potassic fertilizers trebled, consumption of these fertilizers went down and ratio of N:P:K consumption got distorted. Government of India introduced some concession to restore the balance fertilizer application. Subsidy and concession amounts provided by Government of India is given at Table 12.The union budget for 2000-01 raised urea prices by 15 percent, DAP by 7 percent and that of MOP by 15 percent. This move enabled the Government of India (GOI) to prune the subsidy bill to some extent. However, there was no increase in fertilizer price in the union budget for 2001-02. In the long-term policy, the subsidy withdrawal in a phased manner has been proposed. However, modalities to phase out the subsidy have not been clearly mentioned.

Table 12. Subsidy + Concessions on fertilizers YEAR Rs. In million 1976-77 600 1981-82 3,750 1986-87 18,971 1991-92 47,996 1996-97 59,060+16,720 2000-01 85,580+40,930 With the withdrawal of subsidy and concessions the prices of fertilizers will increase. In the totally decontrolled scenario, the stability and uniformity of fertilizer prices is not likely to be achieved. Indian farmers who were getting fertilizers almost at the uniform price throughout the country may not continue to avail this opportunity. They may also witness fluctuating market price of a fertilizer within a short span of one crop season. Such price variation may affect farmers purchase decision as well. Innovative Approaches in Increasing Nutrient Use Efficiency The low efficiency of fertilizer use in India is a matter of concern. Nitrogen use efficiency in rice crop is only 30-35 percent, with an overall efficiency level at 50 percent. Phosphatic fertilizers are the costliest on Rs./kg of nutrient basis but their use efficiency is 20-25 percent only. Efficiency of potash is around 70-80 percent. Efficient utilization of fertilizer, therefore, is key to economics of fertilizer application and environment friendly sustainable agriculture. Adoption of the best time, method and dose of fertilizer application by the farmers is essential to achieve higher efficiency of fertilizer use. Soil testing to determine the fertilizer need, suitable fertilizer drills for placement of fertilizers, promotion of slow release materials, IPNS and other improved agronomic practices will certainly help in increasing efficiency of applied fertilizers. Use of coated urea, USG, precision farming using GIS for decision support system in efficient use of fertilizer will become necessary to enhance the Fertilizer Use Efficiency. W. T. O. Implications Quantitative restrictions on import of fertilizers have been removed since April 1, 2001. The proposal to institute a tariff rate quota (TRQ) for urea imports has been put on

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hold for the time being, retaining the basic custom duty of five per cent for the year 200102. Under the TRQ regime, it is proposed to allow imports of a specific quantity at the existing rate of five per cent custom duty and quantities beyond at higher custom duty. At present, there is no bound rate of duty on urea and Government can impose higher tariff say 150-200 per cent in future. But pegging the duty at such levels may not be appropriate because imports of urea thus will become costly to meet the demandsupply gap that is likely to increase in future. The TRQ option will therefore, provide the flexibility in importing a certain critical quantity at a lower duty. At present, urea imports would be undertaken through designated state trading enterprises (MMTC, STC and IPL) on the commercial considerations in accordance with Article XVII of GATT. In other words they can import any quantity without any restriction. There will be a bound rate of 5 per cent custom duty on import of DAP and MOP. The W.T.O related issues are under detailed examination by the Government. Fertilizer Promotion Besides making fertilizers available to the farmers, which have vital role in increasing crop production, Fertilizer Industry took upon the responsibility of undertaking systematic promotional and educational programmes. Governments, State Agricultural Universities and other voluntary institutions have also performed key role in fertilizer promotion. Fertilizer promotion programmes lay emphasis an efficient and balanced use of fertilizer application. Farmers Meetings, Crop Seminars, Field Days, Farmers Training/ Visits, Farmers Camps, Crop Demonstration/ LSBD / CIP/ Trials, Campaigns (Soil test, Seed treatment, Plant protection, Fumigation etc.) are some of the activities carried out to educate farmers about fertilizer use and crop production technology. Instead of scattered efforts of fertilizer promotion, area development approach is much meaningful in achieving the objectives. Area Development Programmes are undertaken for the benefit of farmers to increase their crop yields through better management of available resources under situations like dryland, problematic soils, tribal areas etc. Lack of awareness among the farmers, limited financial resources and non-availability of timely and adequate supply of inputs including credit are some of the major constraints identified for adoption of improved technologies. A well-focused programme dealing with location specific problems and their solutions have given quick results. Spectacular rise in fertilizer consumption has achieved in a short span of 3-4 years, through concerted and collaborated efforts in the selected areas. Emphasis has been laid on area specific problem oriented promotional programmes along with service support. Soil testing, IPNS, wasteland development, watershed management, high-tech agriculture, dealers network, use of information technology, credit card facility etc. have been suggested for reorienting promotional strategy. Fertilizer industry has always believed in the promotion of nutrient application based on soil test. It has also created facilities of analyzing soil samples through static as well as Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories. There are 68 soil testing laboratories (34 STL and 34 Mobile) being run by various fertilizer companies. These laboratories have capacity to analyze about six Lac samples per annum. The major industry members have 34 static and 17 mobile laboratories with an annual capacity of testing more than five Lac samples and utilization of about 73% capacity (Table-13). In all there are 519 soil testing laboratories in India with a capacity of about 6.5 million samples per annum. In order to provide soil testing facilities to all 106 million farm holdings in a reasonable period of time, the existing analyzing capacity of the soil testing programme needs to be augmented almost 15-20 times. This would require tremendous amount of resources and involvement of all agencies whose basic aim is to see that agriculture development in the country is further accelerated to achieve ever-increasing need for more and more foodgrains as well as other commercial crops. The efforts of the

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State Governments will have to be supplemented by the programmes of Corporate sector in the agriculture input business. Farmers Service Centers (Fascias) are developed to supplement the concept of Single Window System where all agricultural inputs including farm guidance and soil test facilities are available under one roof. Many of the industry members have established the farmers service centres. PSUs/Cooperative units have almost 620 FSCs Spread over 17 states of the country. Prominent among them are IFFCO -168, KRIBHCO -60, GSFC 181, GNFC -64, RCF -34, NFL - 5 and FACT - 108. Table 13. Fertilizer Industry-wise Progress Report on working of Soil Testing Laboratories for the year 1997-98.

S.No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Fertilizer Industry HFC IFFCO GSFC RCF SPIC MFL PPCL. CFL. FACT Zauri . IGFCL GNVFC Deepak KRIBHCO NFCL Duncan Rallis Total

No. of static 10 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 34

Labs mobile 6 2 2 5 1 1 6 17

Total 16 4 3 10 2 1 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 6 1 1 3 51

Annual Capacity 12,000 55,000 30,000 33,900 21,000 25,000 1,500 2,000 46,000 60,000 16,000 14,000 9,000 36,000 12,000 3,000 16,500 500,900

% Utilization 6.62 109.92 116.42 83.02 111.12 65.94 47.73 62.4 71.48 118.03 101.08 89.42 107.86 59.6 109.55 64.6 99.17 73.43

Information Technology India has contributed significantly in the field of information technology (IT) and has created a unique position in international arena. The spread of IT to rural India has opened new vistas in technology transfer areas. Not only large volume of information can be made available through these media but interactive interface can also be provided between the farmers and an expert sitting at distant place. This will help in increasing reach of expert in distant and otherwise inaccessible areas. Use of geographical information system for supporting farmers in decision making for management of natural resources and improvement in crop productivity can be very cost effective as well. IT provides opportunity for blending advantages of inter personnel and mass communication in to one media through interactive mode and wider reach. Thus e-extension will be a common system of promotional programmes. Several members of fertiliser industry have created their web sites and also launching agricultural information portals. However, these have to be further enriched with content, farmer friendly touch screen technology etc.

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