CHAPTER – II

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

 CAPACITY BUILD-UP

The indigenous annual capacity of fertilizer production at the end of the Seventh Five Year Plan, beginning of the Eighth Five Year Plan and the annual capacity at the end of the year 1998-1999 are indicated below:-

(In Lakh Tonnes)

PRODUCTION:

2. The target and actual production of fertilizers during 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99 are given below:-

(In Lakh Tonnes)

Year	Nitrogen			Phosphate
	Target	Actual	%age achieved	Target	Actual	%age of achieved
1993-94	78	72.31	93	22	18.16	83
1994-95	81.16	79.45	98.00	23.31	24.93	107.00
1995-96	86.33	87.77	101.70	26.67	25.58	95.90
1996-97	90.33	85.99	93.50	26.80	25.56	88.00
1997-98	96.10	100.86	105.00	28.60	29.76	104.10
1998-99 (Estimated)	106.82	104.80	98.10	30.27	29.98	99

3. The production performance of both nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers during Kharif 1998 was less than the target due to following reasons:

i)     There was a short fall in production in all the plants of HBJ pipeline including KRIBHCO -Hazira due to curtailment of natural gas from ONGC for the period from 17th to 23rd September 1998 in view of floods in Hazira.

ii)    Power & equipment problems, shortage of raw material and labour problems affected production in many of the plants including two sick companies viz. Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited and Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited.

iii)    Production in Rabi 1998-99 will be affected due to ONGC shutdown at Uran in December, 1998 affecting production in Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited and in March-April 1999 affecting all the fertilizer plants on HBJ pipeline during March 1999.          

iv)    There was a shortage in production of complex fertilizers mainly due to the lower level of imports of Muriate of Potash.   The situation is expected to improve in Rabi.

CAPACITY UTILIZATION

4. The capacity utilisations of nitrogen and phosphate during the years 1991-92 to 1998-99 are as follows:-

Year	Capacity Utilisation (%age)
	Nitrogen		Phosphate
	Target	Actual	Target	Actual
1991-92	89.1	88.5	96.3	93.0
1992-93	90.3	88.0	97.4	82.1
1993-94	91.4	83.9	78.0	64.3
1994-95	94.0	91.2	82.6	88.3
1995-96	94.0	96.9	94.5	90.6
1996-97	93.4	93.5	89.9	68.0
1997-98	96.8	101.6	97.9	101.7
1998-99(Estimated)	101.5	99.1	97.7	94.6

AVAILABILITY OF FERTILIZERS

The assessed requirement, availability and sales of major fertilizers namely, Urea, DAP and MOP during the last three crop seasons are given below :

1. Controlled Fertilizer : UREA

(figures in lakh metric tonnes)

* Provisional Upto 31.10.1998

The overall availability of urea in the country has been comfortable. Urea sales registered a growth of nearly 4% in Kharif’ 98 if compared with that of Kharif’ 97.

2. Decontrolled Fertilizers

a) DAP

(figs. in lakh metric tonnes)

Season	Availability	Sales
1. Kharif’ 97	35.92	28.77
2. Rabi’ 97-98	29.5	24.22
3. Kharif’ 98	33	27.98
4. Rabi’ 98-99 (upto 31.10.98)	10.71*	6.56*

* Provisional

The sales of DAP during 1997-98 had registered significant increase of 49% compared to 1996-97. This was mainly on account of enhancement of concession amount and streamlined administration of the Concession scheme. During Kharif,98, sales of DAP have registered a decline of 3% because of lower level of import and consequnet tight availability of this fertilizer. Delayed announcement of rates of concession by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC) under the Concession Scheme had adverse impact on arrivals through imports.

b) MOP

(figs. in lakh metric tonnes)

* Provisional

As in the case of DAP, sales of MOP registered significant increase of 37% during 1997-98 over 1996-97. However, MOP sales during Kharif,98 were lower by 38% on  account of lower level of imports which was due to delay in non-announcement of the rates of concession under the Concession Scheme.

Import of Fertilizers

Urea, DAP and MOP are the three major fertilizers which are imported in the country to bridge the gap between the demand and indigenous availability. The imports of urea, which is under price and movement control , is made on Government account and it is the only canalised fertilizer.

In the case of nitrogenous fertilizers, about 80% of the country’s requirement is met from the indigenous production and the remaing near by 20% through imports. In case of phosphatic fertilizers, the availability of fertilizer grade rock phosphate in the country is limited. Besides, other intermediates used in the production of fertilizers, viz; phosphoric acid, sulphur, etc.are also required to be imported. For want of commercially viable reserves of potash in India, the entire requirement of potash is met through direct imports of Muriate of Potash (MOP). These fertilizers, being on Open General License(OGL), are imported by both private and public sector companies.

The imports of these fertilizers in the country (in nutrient terms) during the last three years have been as under:-

(Qty. in lakh tonnes)

This includes DAP & MOP imported/likely to be imported on private trade account.

FERTILIZER EDUCATION PROJECTS BEING IMPLEMENTED BY THE FERTILIZER COMPANIES USING FOREIGN AID FUNDS

KRISHAK BHARATI COOPERATIVE LTD. (KRIBHCO) is implementing fertilizer education projects utilising funds available by foreign aid agency, i.e., Government of U.K., Department for International Development (DFID). The details of these projects are given below:-