Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers
The Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers comprises a combination of three departments:
Department of Fertilisers: The main objective of the Department of Fertilizers is to ensure adequate and timely availability of fertilizers at affordable prices for maximizing agricultural production in the country.
Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals: The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals has been part of the Ministry since 1991. It is entrusted with the responsibility of policy, planning, development and regulation of Chemicals and Petrochemicals Industries.
Department of Pharmaceuticals: The Department of Pharmaceuticals was created in July 2008 to provide greater focus for the growth of the high potential Pharmaceuticals industry.
Important Schemes and Policies
Neem Coating of Urea
The Department of Fertilizers (DoF) has made it mandatory for all the domestic producers to produce 100% urea as Neem Coated Urea (NCU). The benefits of use of NCU are as under:-
Improvement in soil health
Reduction in usage of plant protection chemicals
Reduction in pest and disease attack
An increase in yield of paddy, sugarcane, maize, soybean, Tur/Red Gram
Negligible diversion towards non-agricultural purposes.
Due to slow release of Nitrogen, Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) of Neem Coated Urea increases resulting in reduced consumption of NCU as compared to normal urea
New Urea Policy (NUP) 2015
Objectives of the policy are-
To maximize indigenous urea production.
To promote energy efficiency in the urea units.
To rationalize the subsidy burden on the Government of India.
Achievements of NUP: The production of urea during the year 2017-18 was significantly higher than the production of urea during 2013-14.
New Investment Policy- 2012
The Government announced New Investment Policy (NIP)-2012 in January, 2013 and made amendments in 2014 to facilitate fresh investment in the urea sector and to make India self-sufficient in the urea sector.
Policy on Promotion of City Compost
The Government of India approved a policy on promotion of City Compost, notified by the DoF in 2016 granting Market Development Assistance of Rs. 1500/- for scaling up production and consumption of city compost.
To increase sale volumes, compost manufacturers willing to market city compost were allowed to sell city compost in bulk directly to farmers.
Fertilizer companies marketing city compost covered under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for Fertilizers.
