The more fertilizers we use, the more they deplete soil organic matter, threatening crop yields and pushing farmers to add more fertilizers
The ongoing war in West Asia and the rising costs of fuel and fertilizers give India an opportunity to enhance fertilizer use efficiency and moderate demand. India produces 80% of its urea requirement domestically and imports the rest while also boosting domestic production capacities to become fully self-reliant. But India’s urea industry relies too heavily on imported fuel. While green ammonia produced from the electrolysis of water using solar energy is an option, it is not sustainable in water-stressed areas. The situation is worse for phosphatic fertilizers, as India lacks mineral rock phosphate and therefore has to import such fertilizers almost entirely.
Together, both the nitrogen (mostly urea) and phosphorus components of fertilizers define India’s food security. While the government has been enhancing subsidies to maintain fertilizer prices for farmers, over two-thirds of the ₹2 lakh crore spent on annual subsidies is not harvested as food, and is lost to pollution.
The fertilizer trap
Inefficient, excessive or unbalanced use of fertilizer nutrients not only wastes money but also damages the soil, water, air, human health, biodiversity, and causes climate change and global warming. The more fertilizers we use, the more they deplete the soil’s organic matter and its holding capacity for water and nutrients, threatening crop yields and pushing farmers to add more fertilizers. This ‘fertilizer trap’ explains why India’s national demand for fertilizers never saturates, even as supply has increased over the decades.
Therefore, it is high time to move beyond supply side management and boost fertilizer use efficiency to moderate demand. Efficiency means producing more crop per kg of fertilizer used, or maintaining yields while reducing fertilizer input. The government’s ‘nutrient-based subsidy’ did not improve efficiencies or reduce demand as urea was not included in the scheme. While neem-coated urea was meant to improve nitrogen-use efficiency, it could not stop the loss of most of the urea as ammonia to air pollution. Similarly, most of the phosphatic fertilizers are also lost to water pollution.
Lack of coordination
While pulses, other leguminous cover crops, manures, composts and biochar could reduce fertilizers to a large extent, they are no longer the mainstay of our farming systems. Last month, the Union government directed the State governments to promote green manure but did not emphasise on fertilizer savings.
In November 2017, the Prime Minister had, in his Mann Ki Baat address to the nation, called for halving fertilizer usage within five years. However, fertilizer consumption has only increased due to the lack of inter-ministerial and interdepartmental coordination to address farming systems in an integrated manner.
For example, though the government announces Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for over 20 crops, actual government procurement is limited to rice, wheat and sugarcane, which is why farmers prefer to grow only these three crops. These crops consume over two-thirds of all the urea in India. This destroys traditional crop rotations involving pulses/legumes and pushes farmers into the fertilizer trap.
The pulses solution
Pulse-cereal rotations sustained agriculture for thousands of years before fertilizers were invented, as most pulses leave behind some of the fixed nitrogen in the soil for the next crop. The only legume whose production grew significantly with low urea is soybean, but it does not leave behind any fixed nitrogen for the next crop.
India must incentivise pulses/legume-based crop rotations or multicropping, as legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen, and need no urea or only 10% of the urea used for cereals. They are also ideal for rain-fed areas facing deficit monsoons.
India badly needs pulses to address its chronic protein malnutrition. India has the world’s largest vegetarian population dependent on pulses for protein. Yet, cereal-centric policies caused a shortage of pulses, as their cultivation has declined, stagnated, or shifted to marginal lands affecting yields. Today the country imports about 20% of its pulses.
The Dalhan Aatmanirbharta Mission launched in October 2025 promised 100% procurement of Tur, Urad, and Masoor at MSP for four years. Under it, ₹11,440 crore was allocated to scale up production to 350 lakh tonnes per year. But according to April 2026 data, the area for sowing pulses grew only 1.26% over last year, calling for better implementation.
Enhancing efficiency
India must also triple the recycling of manure, compost and biochar to replace fertilizers and boost soil health. Fertilizer recommendations need to be revised to ensure that organics form the basal dose and fertilizers are used only as a top-up. Coordinated crop trials across India showed that up to half of the recommended doses of fertilizers can be replaced with manure, biochar or compost with no loss of crop yield.
India’s own research shows that the rice germplasm alone has the potential to double nitrogen use efficiency. To ensure inter-sectoral coordination, the Union government should revive the Interministerial National Nitrogen Steering Committee, whose tenure expired before any of its recommendations were acted upon.
