The Union government’s fertiliser subsidy bill for 2026-27 (April-March) is set to touch Rs 3,40,000 crore against the budgeted Rs 1,70,799 crore, surpassing the previous record of Rs 251,339.36 crore in 2022-23. The government is now working to liberalise the approval process for non-subsidised crop nutrient products.Currently, no new fertiliser, subsidised or non-subsidised, can be introduced in India without the product getting registered under the Fertiliser (Control) Order (FCO) of 1985. The company seeking approval to manufacture, import or sell the product has to submit a dossier detailing its chemical composition, production methods and safety/toxicity-related information.This is followed by field trials in multiple locations for at least two cropping seasons, conducted through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes and state agricultural universities. These are to demonstrate the product’s bio-efficacy — how much it enhances crop yields, plant stress tolerance and nutrient uptake.Once the dossier and bio-efficacy trial data is provided, a Central Fertiliser Committee reviews them and grants or denies approval for the product’s registration.Cumbersome regulation“The whole process is time-consuming and administratively complex. It takes 800-plus days to register a new fertiliser product in India, versus 90 in the US, 30 in the European Union and Japan, 20 in Australia and 15 days in Vietnam,” said Sanjiv Kanwar, managing director, Yara Fertilisers India Pvt. Ltd. The government is considering streamlining the approval process by exempting fertilisers “meeting established quality and safety standards” from the mandatory field trials. “In-principle agreement has already been reached on the proposal, and after detailed consultations with the ICAR, industry and state governments, along with review of relevant documents, the reform will be finalised for implementation,” according to an Agriculture Ministry statement. Story continues below this adThe proposed reform is expected to significantly speed up the introduction of new fertilisers in the market. Kanwar said: “Ideally, the requirement should just be for the product to have a minimum content of total plant nutrients and a maximum limit of heavy metals and other contaminants. If the product conforms to the minimum nutrient, maximum contaminant threshold and the company declares these in its label claims — which is open for substantiation and post-market surveillance — it must be automatically approved.”His company, a subsidiary of the $15.7-billion Norwegian crop nutrition giant Yara International, has a 1.2 million tonnes per annum urea plant at Babrala in Uttar Pradesh. It also sells a range of non-subsidised fertilisers containing primary (nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P and potassium-K), secondary (sulphur-S, calcium-Ca and magnesium-Mg) and micro (iron-Fe, zinc-Zn, manganese-Mn, boron-B, copper-Cu, molybdenum-Mo, chlorine-Cl and nickel-Ni) nutrients.Also Read | Amid Iran war squeeze, unraveling the real cost of India’s fertiliser importsThat includes water-soluble fertilisers (WSF) marketed under the YaraTera Kristalon brand. These products have NPK in varying ratios (20:8:8, 19:6:20, 15:5:30 and 12:12:36) along with S, Mg, B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo and Zn. This is unlike urea, which has only 46% N, or di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) with 46% P and 18% N.The water-soluble modelYara isn’t the only one. Story continues below this adDCM Shriram Ltd has introduced WSFs customised for specific crops and to meet their nutrient requirement at different growth stages. Being 100% soluble in water, these products are amenable to precise nutrient delivery through drip irrigation or foliar (spraying directly to the plant leaves), instead of normal field application in the soil. The New Delhi-based company has designed and developed ‘Shriram DripIT’ WSFs for grape farming. These are stage-specific nutrient products — a ‘Grade I’ 8:32:16 NPK to be applied during vine growth and pre-fruit set phase, a ‘Grade II’ 6:35:25 NPK for berry development and ‘Grade III’ 5:5:41 NPK towards ripening and final maturation. The K content rises in the second and third stages to prevent fruit drop and maximise berry size, weight and sugar accumulation.DCM Shriram has similar stage-specific Grade I and Grade II drip irrigation-compatible WSFs for pomegranates and vegetables, containing NPKs as well as S, B and other secondary & micro nutrients. Also Read | Iran war: The fertiliser challenge India faces, and the possible way outThe market for WSFs has expanded thanks to increased adoption of drip irrigation and high-value horticulture by farmers, besides an amendment to the FCO in October 2015. Under it, the Modi government issued “general specifications” for the commercialisation of WSFs. Story continues below this adThese simply required them to have a minimum 30% content of total nutrients — 25% primary and the balance secondary & micro — and maximum prescribed limits for contaminants (lead, cadmium, arsenic, total chloride and sodium). Companies could market any WSF meeting these specifications (with legible labeling on bags/containers) after 30 days of intimating the relevant government authorities about “the details of the product and their intention to sell”. Extending the model“The WSF model can be extended to all non-subsidised fertilisers, allowing companies to introduce, and Indian farmers to access, the latest innovative products with the necessary guardrails,” Sanjay Chhabra, executive director (Shriram Farm Solutions), DCM Shriram Ltd, pointed out. Non-subsidised fertilisers cover a range of specialty crop nutrition products. That includes WSFs, micronutrients, liquid fertilisers, advanced macronutrient solutions and bio-stimulants.Micronutrient products are marketed as inorganic salts (zinc sulphate, manganese sulphate, ferrous sulphate and borax), fortified fertilisers (zincated urea and NPK or boronated DAP) and in chelated or chemically bound form (zinc and iron ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid).Story continues below this adAlso Read | Relief for Indian farmers; Urea prices crash in latest import tenderLiquid fertilisers, like WSFs, can be applied through drip irrigation and foliar sprays, while mostly used to provide a particular nutrient for a crop during its peak requirement stage or for deficiency corrections. Due to their dissolved form, they allow the nutrient to be directly delivered via drip to the plant root zone for immediate availability and absorption by the crop.Advanced macronutrient solutions include slow/controlled-release and nano fertilisers. These, unlike conventional fertilisers, release the underlying nutrients gradually to synchronise their availability with demand over the crop’s critical growth stages.The nutrient use efficiency (NEU) in urea is only 30-40%. The remaining 60-70% N is lost through volatilisation (escaping as ammonia gas) and leaching (seeping into groundwater as nitrate). It’s even lower, at 15-25%, for DAP; the bulk of P is “locked” in the soil as insoluble compounds (iron, aluminium or calcium phosphates), making it unavailable to plant roots.The NUEs are as high as 60-70% for controlled-release and 80-95% for WSF and liquid fertilisers. Bio-stimulants don’t contain nutrients per se. But as products derived from microbes (bacteria and fungi), soil organic matter (humic and fulvic acids), seaweed extracts and other naturally occurring substances, they enhance the NUE of fertilisers applied by farmers. By stimulating the internal physiological processes in plants, they improve their uptake of nutrients as well as conversion into biomass and yields.Story continues below this adThe Indian market for non-subsidised fertilisers is growing (see chart). The potential could be even more with the proposed liberalised approval procedures and soaring costs of imported conventional fertilisers and raw materials/intermediates, especially after the West Asia conflict. That adds to the necessity for more crop from every unit of nutrient applied.