Fertiliser Consumption Scene in India: A Critical Review

After a sharp decline in 1974-75, consumption of fertilizer increased substantially in the subsequent years. In fact, the growth in absolute terms registered during 1976-77 (and also likely to register in 1977-78) is larger than during any year prior to 1976-77. Such an impressive growth has occurred under price environment which is much less favorable to the cultivators than the one which prevailed in the years before the Oil Crises. All this has created a general feeling that all s well with the trends in demand for fertilizer as well as efforts to generate continuous rapid growth in it. The main aim of the paper is to assess critically the prospects of continuous rapid growth in demand for fertilizer during the next few years. This is done by identifying the forces responsible for growth after 1974 in the background of growth in fertilizer consumption up to 1974. The most important conclusion of the paper is that the growth rates in fertilizer consumption after 1974-75 cannot be taken as indicative of the rates at which it is likely to grow in the next few years, and that concerted efforts are required in the right directions if post-1974 growth rates in demand for fertilizers are to be sustained.