Govt looks at bio nutrients to move away from urea-based fertilisers

The government is firming up a plan to develop alternative sources of plant nutrition, including biofertilisers and organic fertilisers, which will replace urea-based fertilisers, a move aimed at making India 'atmanirbhar' in fertiliser production and controlling the year-on-year increase in fertiliser subsidy on the back of rising input cost.

A long-term plan is being put in place for in-house production of these nutrients to cushion the farmers from abrupt price rise while cutting down on the government's subsidy bill, a senior government official, aware of the developments, told ET.

"The way energy prices are going up, it is natural that fertiliser prices will also go up. It is time that India needs to move towards organic fertilisers on a commercial scale," the official said.



The government had in April this year substantially enhanced the fertiliser subsidy by ₹1.10 lakh crore, over and above the ₹1.05 lakh crore budgeted for 2022-23. This has taken the total fertiliser subsidy for the fiscal to a record high of ₹2.15 lakh crore for 2022-23 compared to ₹1.62 lakh crore in 2021-22.

As per the plan, the government is eyeing large-scale commercial use of cow manure as biofertiliser and bio-energy from 'gaushalas'. This will help convert cattle into economic assets while providing a sustainable and steady supply of alternative sources of nutrients including vermicompost and global biogas.

Further, a dedicated policy framework is being developed to support production, packaging, marketing and distribution of biofertilisers. The government is expected to go the PPP way by roping in big gaushalas, dairy cooperatives and farmer producer organisations (FPOs) for production of enriched solid and liquid biofertilisers.