Production, Imports and Consumption of All Fertilizers (NPK)

Chemical fertilizers have played an important role in the success of India’s green revolution and consequent self-reliance in foodgrain production. The total fertilizer production, which was 14,707 TTN in 2007-08, has marginally increased to 16,363 TTN in 2011-12. Fertilizer products cover Nitrogenous, Phosphatic and Potassic fertilizers. Nitrogenous fertilizers have the largest share in the total fertilizer production (always above 70%) and India is the third largest producer of nitrogenous fertilizers in the world only behind China and USA.

The fertilizer consumption in India was 22,570 TTN in 2007-08, it has shown inconsistent growth over the years. In 2011-12, India imported around 13,002 TTN of fertilizers to meet the gap between production and demand.

Note: Fertilizer consumption measures the quantity of plant nutrients used per unit of arable land; TTN – Thousand Tonnes of Nutrients