One Nation One Fertiliser

One Nation One Fertilizer is a central government scheme introduced by the ministry of chemicals and fertilizer to bring uniformity in fertilizers. Fertilizers in India are a major subsidized area. Similarly, Government has come up with “Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojna“. All the fertilizers will be sold under the name of BHARAT emphasizing “single brands for fertilizer and logo“.

India is 3rd largest producer of fertilizer after China and the USA and 2nd largest consumer of fertilizer after china. Fertilizer is important for agricultural growth and is targeted by the government for their better utilization.

One Nation One Fertilizer Scheme (ONOF):

• Fertilizer will come under the name of Bharat brand and single fertilizer design bag across the country.
• All the urea bags will be with a bar code which will be read through the bar code reader and linked with the POS machine.
• Under ONOF, the company is permitted to show its name, logo, brand, and even product information only in one-third space of the bags.
• The remaining two-thirds of the space is used for the Bharat brand and mentions Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Yojana.
• The single brand name for Urea, Di Ammonium Phosphate DAP, Muriate of potash, and nitrogen phosphorus potassium will be Bharat urea, Bharat DAP, Bharat MOP, and Bharat NPK respectively.
• It will be applied to all Fertilizer companies, fertilizer marketing companies, and state trading entities.
• It is equally applicable to all private and public sector companies.
• Subsidy will be given only after fertilizer bag is sold through bar code reading machine via pos machine under DBT.
• Government asked companies to not procure old design bags from September 15 as new bags under One Nation One fertilizer would begin from 2 October 2022.

Main Aim of the One Nation One Fertilizer Scheme:

• Prevent diversion- It will stop the diversion of the use of urea for industrial purposes.
• Easy monitoring- It will help to know the real-time movement, availability, and sales of fertilizers.
• This new scheme will save Rs 3000 crore a year.  Urea is considered a property that has negligible differentiation as a player so no need of transporting fertilizers across the country.
• Government is targeting subsidy cuts. The fertilizer subsidy bill is Rs 1.5 lakh crore. 

Government Argument Behind the One Nation One Fertilizer Scheme:

• The MRP of the urea is fixed by the government. Higher prices are then compensated by Government. 
• The Fertilizer Movement Control Order 1973, allows the government to decide, where they want to sell.
• The government wants to take credit as they are spending a large amount of money on subsidies.
•  They want to decide where and at what price the company will sell.

Drawbacks of the One Nation One Fertilizer Scheme:

• Complete commoditizing fertilizers will impact quality.
• Fertilizer companies will stop taking advertisements and brand promotion. 
• With all the caping, and deciding the pricing by the government, companies will have no authority.
• Company function on the name of the brand and customers they built over years and they are taken aback due to this scheme. Companies like Tata and Indo gulf fertilizers have left this area in recent times.
• Companies will now be reduced to contract manufacturers and import manufacturers for the government. It will discourage private companies from getting involved.

Fertilizer:

Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic, natural or artificial supply of one or more chemicals needed for the growth of the plant. It is a soil amendment. Nutrients are of two types Macro (Primary) nutrients and Micro (secondary) nutrients. Fertilizers enhance the productivity of agriculture by 70 Percent.  The green revolution and the use of High yielding variety of seeds increased the fertilizer demand.

1. Macronutrient:

Six macronutrients are needed for plant growth. These are Nitrogen(N), Phosphorus(P), Potassium(K), Calcium(Ca), Magnesium(Mg), Sulphur(s).

2. Micronutrient

The no. of micronutrients is eight. They are Boron(B), Chlorine(cl), Copper(Cu), Iron(Fe), Zinc(Zn), etc.

Types of Fertilizers:

• Phosphatic- super phosphate
• Potassic- Potassium nitrate, chile saltpeter
• Nitrogenous- Urea, ammonium nitrate. It is 3/4th of the total fertilizer.

Advantages of Fertilizers:

• It increases production by increasing the crop intensity while multiple cropping is practiced. The increasing population demands better food security and fertilizer plays its role there.
• fertilizer is important for specific soil type Lateritic soil need more P & K, alluvial soil need more nitrogen and Sugarcane cultivation demands more potassium.
• Hybrid seed productivity increases with fertilizers.
• It is an invisible factor in the attainment of the goal of self-sufficiency in food grains.

Problems Related to Fertilizer:

• India’s consumption of fertilizer is low because of less awareness, lack of proper distribution, and lack of supply.
• Chemical fertilizer is not accessible due to higher costs.
• The imbalance in the use of fertilizer is very wide.  The ideal use of fertilizer as defined by the Haumantha Rao committee is 4:2:1 but what is real is 8.2: 4.2:1.
• There is a regional imbalance in the use of soil as well. Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana have high usage.
• The use of Nitrogen and other fertilizers causes pollution in soil and water, which leads to eutrophication.