PRODUCITON OF FERTILISERS WITNESSED A negative growth in first nine months of the current year i. e. 2008-09. Production of N + p nutrients declined by 2% in April -December, 2008 from the same period last year. The negative growth in production affects availability of fertiliser adversely. While the domestic availability of fertilisers has been affected, sales of nutrients (N + K) is estimated to have grown by 13.7% for Kharif 2008 over Kharif 2007. The annual consumption for the year is expected to grow by 7-8% for total nutrients. It widens the gap between domestic production and demand of fertilisers necessitating increasing volumes of imports. It is expected that country will end up importing about 6-6.5 million tonnes of urea and 6 million tonnes of DAP this year. Total import of MOP is expected to be about 5 million tonnes. The huge imports by India create upward pressure on the international prices of fertiliser commodities.
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