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>Tata Chemicals’ customised fertilisers unit at Babrala, Uttar Pradesh, is facing hard times. The 1.3-lakh-million-tonne production facility is operating below half its installed capacity because of lack of demand.
Customised fertilisers are a combination of micro nutrients such as sulphur, zinc and boron with regular >fertilisers such as urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and potash. They are blended in a proportion that suits specific crops and soil patterns. In an e-mail reply, the company confirmed that the unit was operating at 40 per cent of its capacity.
Tata Chemicals manufactures and markets the customised fertilisers under the brand name ‘Paras Farmoola’, which was launched in 2010.
Price impact
The product was “well received” by the farmers in the launch year. However recent changes in government policy on fertiliser subsidy and introduction of nutrient-based subsidy, has impacted the product.
The prices of basic fertilisers such as DAP, muriate of potash (MoP) have increased significantly and in some cases have shot up by about 100 per cent in a year. This has resulted in a significant reduction in demand from farmers, D.K. Sundar, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Commercial, said in the e-mail.
“It has also adversely impacted farmers’ experimentation with customised fertilisers,” he added.
Paras Farmoola is a region-specific customised fertiliser for key crops such as paddy, wheat, potato and sugarcane. Such products are formulated after conducting research to find nutrients missing in a particular soil for growing specific crops. The fertilisers are then prepared with the missing nutrients in that soil.
Technical issues
The company also said it has a foreign technology partner for customised fertiliser production. “It is also important to clarify that there are no manufacturing challenges for this product,” it added.
However, an industry source said that all the Indian fertiliser companies producing customised fertilisers are facing production issues due to complex manufacturing processes. These companies require additional expertise to crack the ‘manufacturing code’, the source said.
rahul.wadke@thehindu.co.in
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