Fertilizer Use on Indias Unirrigated Areas: A Perspective Based on Past Record and Future Needs

Unirrigated areas constitute more than 70 percent of India’s cropped land, and account for more than 80 percent of the production of jowar, bajra, small millets, pulses and oilseeds plus about two-thirds of cotton. Virtually all know technology options to raise crop yields on these areas depend on fertilizer use on them. Against the above backdrop, the paper elaborates four propositions: (1) There is a clear need for sustained rapid growth of fertilizer use in Indian agriculture. (2) This depends, now more than ever before, on accelerated growth in fertilizer use on unirrigated areas. (3) There is already a potential to generate acceleration in fertilizer use on unirrigated areas, and this will increase with technological improvements. (4) Successful exploitation of this potential, however, depends on decisive policies and coordinated efforts in three major directions: (a) generating growth in farmers’ demand for fertilizer in unirrigated areas, (b) creating adequate and efficient fertilizer delivery systems in regions with low irrigation, and (c) keeping growth in aggregate supply of fertilizer ahead of growth in fertilizer demand under irrigated conditions.