A government advisory for farmers that was issued recently prescribed potash spray to manage the standing wheat crop from high temperatures. However, a skewed fertiliser subsidy policy in favour of urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) has made muriate of potash (MoP) out of reach from small and marginal farmers with its sales dropping by over 37 per cent in the current fiscal.
A high-level committee asked farmers to spray 0.2 per cent MoP by dissolving 400 gm in 200 litres of water in each acre of land at both boot leaf and post-anthesis stages. The panel, as an alternative to MoP, suggested to spray 2 per cent of potassium nitrate (KNO3) by dissolving 4 kg in 200 litres water per acre.
Pilot project on heat stress
The Hyderabad-based Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture last year demonstrated through pilot projects how potash sprays in wheat crop helped reduce heat stress as the crop nutrient helps in osmo-revolution process in plants. Due to osmotic pressure, turgidity in plants is maintained and regulates the opening of stomato.
Currently, retail price of MoP is about ₹1,700-1,750/bag of 50 kg whereas DAP is available at ₹1,350/bag. Urea is already highly subsidised as the government has set the maximum retail price (MRP) at ₹242 per 45 kg bag (excluding neem coating charges and taxes). Even many of the complex (mixure of N, P, K and S) fertilisers are lower than MoP and those are selling at ₹1,400-1,500/bag.
Due to the high prices of MoP, its sales have dropped to 13.98 lakh tonnes (lt) during the April-January period of the current fiscal from 22.29 lt a year ago, official data show. The import of MoP has dropped by 5.8 per cent to 13.93 lt from 14.78 lt in these 10 months. Complex fertilisers, too, have reported a fall of 13 per cent to 94.84 lt.
Urea sales up
On the other hand, urea sales have increased by 7.3 per cent to 318.52 lt and that of DAP by 15.8 per cent to 97.3 lt during April-January of 2022-23.
In November last year, the government announced a nutrient-based subsidy policy for the rabi season in which both phosphorous (P) and potash (K) subsidy was lowered from the kharif level. However, while there was a drop in global rates of DAP, the MoP rate was constant. The landed cost of imported DAP in India has dropped to $679/tonne in January from $743/tonne in November 2022 whereas MoP is at the same level at $590/tonne since March 2022.
“Many farmers, who can afford to buy MoP, are not buying it just as they compare it with DAP which is cheaper by ₹400/bag whereas the use of both crop nutrients vary. Globally, potash is cheaper than DAP and urea for farmers, but in India it is not,” said an industry official, adding this anomaly needs to be corrected since MoP is 100 per cent imported.
Meanwhile, out of the ₹2.07 lakh crore of actual fertiliser subsidy spent during the April-January period of the current fiscal, over 31 per cent has gone for P and K fertilisers, estimated to be more than ₹65,000 crore.