India’s agricultural transformation and food security achievements have been closely linked to the rapid expansion of fertiliser use since the Green Revolution. Today, India is the world’s second-largest producer and consumer of fertilisers, consuming nearly 70.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) of fertiliser products in 2024–25. However, beneath this scale lies a significant strategic vulnerability: India remains heavily dependent on imports not only for finished fertilisers such as urea, DAP, and MOP, but also for critical feedstocks and intermediates including LNG, ammonia, sulphur, rock phosphate, and phosphoric acid. Once embedded dependencies are considered, India’s effective external reliance in the fertiliser sector rises to nearly 68–70 percent.
The report highlights how escalating geopolitical tensions, particularly in West Asia, have intensified risks to India’s fertiliser and energy security. Disruptions in the Gulf region and the Strait of Hormuz have contributed to sharp spikes in global fertiliser and LNG prices, increasing import costs, domestic production costs, and fiscal pressures through a rising fertiliser subsidy burden. At the same time, structural distortions within India’s fertiliser subsidy regime have encouraged excessive nitrogen use, imbalanced nutrient application, declining soil health, and inefficiencies in nutrient-use efficiency.
Against this backdrop, the report argues that fertiliser security must be viewed not merely as an agricultural issue, but as a broader challenge linked to energy security, trade resilience, environmental sustainability, and long-term food security. It proposes a comprehensive and integrated policy framework centred on five key pillars: strengthening supply resilience through diversification and strategic reserves; reforming fertiliser subsidies and improving nutrient-use efficiency; expanding domestic production capacity and improving supply planning; promoting customised, alternative, and balanced fertilisers such as TSP/TSP+ and SSP; and investing in future-ready technologies including green ammonia, nano fertilisers, bio-fertilisers, and precision nutrient management.
The report emphasises that India’s fertiliser strategy must evolve from a narrow focus on subsidised availability towards a broader framework based on resilience, efficiency, balanced nutrient management, and sustainability. Such a transition will be essential for insulating Indian agriculture from external shocks while ensuring long-term soil health, farmer welfare, fiscal stability, and national food security in an increasingly uncertain global environment.
