Amid China’s fertiliser curbs, Union minister Piyush Goyal calls for stronger supply chains

“How will our supply chain become self-sufficient and self-reliant? How will it become secure so that we are not stuck when a country stops the supply of fertiliser? We cannot suddenly be in trouble. We have to ensure supply chain resilience in fertilisers, insecticides, and pesticides,” Goyal said at the Krishi Vikram conference here.

The Indian Express had reported last month that opening stocks of DAP in India for the current kharif (monsoon) planting season, as of June 1, stood at 12.4 lakh tonnes (lt) — well below the 21.6 lt recorded on the same date in 2024 and 33.2 lt two years ago.

China’s export curbs — intended to prioritise domestic supply for its farmers and meet the growing demand for phosphates in electric vehicle (EV) battery production — have pushed Indian importers to source more from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Russia, and Jordan. However, none of these countries has been able to fill the gap left by China, this paper had reported.

The China-induced scarcity is reflected in DAP sales, which fell from 108.1 lt in 2023-24 to 92.8 lt in 2024-25. The first two months of the current fiscal have seen a further dip to 7.7 lt, down from 8.8 lt in April-May 2023-24.

Goyal added that predictable pricing will help boost India’s agricultural exports.

“India is still a rain-fed agrarian economy. We do not know what the impact of climate change on agriculture will be… drip irrigation is a good way to tackle this. We have to make irrigation an economically viable option for farmers, and not depend on government subsidies,” Goyal said.

“We have the potential to increase our agri exports to Rs 20 lakh crore from the current Rs 4 lakh crore with better packaging, shelf life, among other improvements. You pay Rs 400 for daal chawal during a flight on IndiGo, but when you add value to the ingredients and packaging, the actual cost of that meal shouldn’t be more than Rs 40,” he said.