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Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said that India is planning to stop importing urea by the end of 2025 as a massive push for domestic manufacturing has helped bridge the gap between supply and demand. He noted that the availability of fertilisers is very important for Indian agriculture. He also said the country has been using chemical fertilisers for the last 60-65 years to enhance crop production. He said now the government is making efforts to promote alternate fertilisers like nano liquid urea and nano liquid di-ammonium phosphate (DAP).

Talking about achieving self-sufficiency in urea production, the minister said the government has adopted a two-pronged strategy to end dependency on urea imports. He highlighted that the government has revived four closed urea plants and is reviving one another factory. He noted that India needs around 35 million tonnes of urea annually to meet domestic demand. He said the installed domestic production capacities have been increased to around 31 million tonne from 22.5 million tonne in 2014-15. He added that at present, the gap between annual domestic production and demand is around 4 million tonne.

Mandaviya further said the annual domestic production capacity of urea would reach around 32.5 million tonnes after the commissioning of the fifth plant and the target is to replace the use of 2-2.5 million tonne of conventional urea with nano liquid urea. According to the government data, imports of urea fell to 7.58 million tonne in 2022-23 from 9.136 million tonne in the previous year. Urea imports stood at 9.828 million tonne in 2020-21, 9.123 million tonne in 2019-20 and 7.448 million tonne in 2018-19.