Our dependence on urea is exceedingly high.Our production and technology of ammonia/urea is perfect. We run our plants at nearly 100 per cent capacity as against the world average of 75 per cent. Our investment in ammonia/urea industry is over Rs 12,000 crore which is likely to double in the next 7 years. We use diverse raw materials to produce ammonia including natural gas, fuel oil, coke oven gas, coal, naphtha etc., and have achieved high energy utilisation norms in our plants.Urea as a product is excellent and has the richest nitrogen source among solid fertilisers. Itsupplies 46 per cent of nitrogen. The cost of producing urea is much less than that of other solid nitrogen fertilisers. Technology is well developed. The country has therefore expanded the production and use of urea. Many more urea plants are coming up in the next seven to eight years and urea's domestic production will be more than 25 million tonnes.

Urea is highly hygroscopic. It absorbs moisture when exposed to atmosphere and so it needs careful packing and handling. Once the urea bag is opened, it must be put to use immediately otherwise, it becomes a slurry.Urea is highly water soluble. It dissolves very fast. It is subject to losses on application to crop lands in various forms including run off, leaching, percolation and evaporation. Urea contains nitrogen in amide form. On application, this amide nitrogen is converted to ammoniacal nitrogen via the nitrate route. It takes 48 to 96 hours for this form, it is absorbed by soil particles and is not subject to losses however, nitrogen losses are thehighest in these 48 to 96 hours.

Urea use efficiency in India is around 40 per cent; we use 18 million tonnes urea, which supplies 8.28 million tonnes of nitrogen. Of this, 3.31 million tonnes nitrogen is used giving us 31 million tonnes of extra crop production. However, nearly five million tonnes nitrogen is lost. Urea now costs Rs 6,000 per tonne and farmers pay Rs 3,360 per tonne and the balance Rs 2,640 per tonne is subsidy. The total cost of 18 million tonnes urea is Rs 10,800 crore, of which material worth Rs 4,320 crore is not utilised, which is a substantial loss. The runoff and percolation losses of urea would pose pollution problems, particularly of ground and river water.

Urea use efficiency is dependent on several factors including type of soil, water levels, irrigation systems, etc. The loss is heavy in calcareous soils, where use efficiency is as low as 32 to 33 per cent. In copiously irrigated crops like sugarcane, potato, wet land paddy, the losses are high.

Use efficiency is a bitbetter in up lands where rainfed crops are grown. However, average use efficiency is 40 per cent or so.If we can increase use efficiency from 40 to 50 per cent we can get extra 7.5 million tonnes of crop production without any extra cost. When use efficiency would go to 60 per cent we can get extra 15 million tonnes of crops valued very modestly at Rs 6,750 million. It could be much more.To over come this situation, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and agricultural universities will have to strengthen database. We must know precise scientific facts governing pathway of applied urea in our different soils under varying moisture regimes.

This will permit us to pinpoint various sources of urea losses in our soils and quantify the losses under each category. In return, we can strengthen our use recommendations to minimise urea losses.We must develop precise recommendations for dose, time and method of application of urea, our recommendators are not precise and tailor made. The recommendations aregeneral. Over a region or over a state. We must develop district-wise recommendations.The practice of irrigation immediately after applying urea is not good. This encourages losses. We must irrigate first and apply urea after the field comes to moist condition.

Guidance to farmers has to be given about using urea well so that we get best results. Our extension machinery including TV programme should be used to train our framers in use of urea.Mixing urea with moist soil before application and keeping it in shade for 36 to 48 hours is a good practice which helps in conserving nitrogen of urea. It is necessary to further develop this method and also to guide farmers on adopting this method regularly.Various products have been tried to increase urea use efficiency.

These include urea super granules, urea briquettes, sulphur coated urea, granulated urea, etc. All these products are expensive extra cost barely matches with increased efficiency. Commercial production of urea super granules and urea briquettesis difficult. Neem coated urea is helpful in increasing use efficiency and needs to be tried further. Once this is established, commercial production of neem coated urea on a large scale can be done.Urea used at the time of sowing field crops has given with other fertilisers to increase its utility or applied mixed with soil. Otherwise urea should be applied 10 to 15 days after sowing when there is adequate crop stand.Increasing use efficiency of urea is a prolonged programme which would give results after 3 to 5 years.

The government of India and the state governments will have to provide lead and the fertiliser industry can actively participate. This would need Rs 80 to 100 crore investment every year for the next 10 years.If we charge Re 1 per bag of urea as use efficiency levy we can collect Rs 38 to 40 crore every year and matching grant can come from the centre. This can then be used to strengthen research, development and extension programming in various states in keeping with urea used in eachstate.We have shown the way to the world in urea production and technical excellent. Let us now work on use efficiency, so that our guidelines can be of use to all countries.

The author is the managing director ofRama Phosphates.