The distribution of fertiliser consists of packing, transportation, storage and final supply to the point of sale. The historical perspective of fertiliser distribution reveals certain important landmarks. Up to 1965, the entire quantity was distributed through state channels. The Sivaraman Committee recommended freedom of distribution in a phased manner.

Accordingly, in three years, the fertiliser distribution was totally liberalised. During the last 30 years the broad pattern of distribution is 45 to 50 per cent through state recognised channels and the rest through private outlets. This has worked well because new distribution centres could come up to cope withgrowing quantities and farmers' interest of getting the material at the door step was protected.

Fertiliser transportation has been mainly by road or railways; earlier loose wagon were used by railways, but in 1978 the railways introduced an excellent system of movement of fertiliser by rakeloads. By this method 1,600 tonnes to 2,500 tonnes of material is transported over distances of 1,000 km to 1,500 km in a matter of 36 to 48 hours. This was a master stroke, which has greatly helped in the fertiliser distribution in India.

Nearly 75 per cent of the primary movement of fertiliser is by rail and the rest by road.

As a nation, we insist in selling all our fertilisers in packed form. To pack 36.3 million tonnes of the material not less than 726 million bags are required costing a whopping Rs 5,800 million. HDPE granules are imported to prepare bags.

Elsewhere in the world, including Europe and USA, a very large quantity of fertiliser is transported, stored and sold in bulk. No packing is done.Farmers do their own bulk blending and apply the fertiliser in bulk. Moving fertiliser in bulk will permit us to transport five to seven per cent extra material using the same number of wagons. Railways are already moving rock phosphate in bulk. This facility can be extended to fertiliser also.

All imported fertiliser, (nearly six million tonnes in 1997-98), was packed at the port and then transported. To start with, the fertiliser can be transported in bulk and stored in bulk. Large warehouses at strategic locations like Nagpur, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Gwalior, Mehsana, Mysore, Indore can be created specifically for storing fertilisers in bulk. Moving fertiliser in bulk by road is a well-established practice in India.

All mixture manufacturers can be supplied there own raw material regularly only in bulk. Selling fertilisers in bulk will help in reducing the prices by nearly Rs 200 per tonne. If the fertiliser mixture is sold in bulk, after manufacturing them on basis of bulk supplies, the reduction in pricewould be Rs 325 to Rs 350 per tonne.

It is necessary to work on this front and develop a suitable programme for distribution of fertilisers in bulk. Even if we sell 10 per cent of fertilisers in bulk to start with, the savings to farmers would be Rs 720 million.

The road movement of fertiliser over a distance of 50 to 750 km is being preferred by the customer as the material reaches quickly and in sound condition. A positive example of road movement helping to build up the consumption base of fertilisers is available from Gujarat State. The fertiliser plants are well dispersed and road supply is neatly organised.

Some manufacturers have contracted the job of moving fertiliser to a state-level agency. The penetration of interior market is facilitated by excellent road network. The result is that most of the villages in Gujarat get direct supply from factory and consumption has spurted.

There are many fertiliser production centres where organising road movement of the material of 500 to 1,000 tonnesper day throughout the year is not easy because truck availability is not adequate or return traffic is not certain because of which circles of truck movement get broken. In such a situation, it is vital for manufacturer to develop its own transport fleet in a steady manner.

Normally one big truck is now costing Rs 0.8 million. To organise 50 such trucks having a carrying capacity, anywhere between 10 to 30 tonnes, would need an investment of 40 million of Rs 40 million. This will permit large manufacturers producing 6,000 tonnes per day or more to definitely move at least 500 to 800 tonnes per day by road. Truck cycles can be worked out on the basis of 12 hours, and 24 hours or 36 hours.

This will ensure that on any given day 70 per cent of the trucks are available for despatch which can carry 400 to 600 tonnes of fertilisers per day. No doubt a separate transport management cell will have to be created by manufacturers but the whole system can operate on no profit no loss basis and saving can be done toextent of Rs 10 to 20 per tonne by having greater rate control on the hired transport system which will run parallel to the owned system. Second advantage would be that material will continuously move even on those days when railway will fail to provide rakes. Bulk movement of fertiliser to storage centre would be greatly facilitated by this method.

The major fertiliser manufacturers have computerised its distribution system and have also gone in for automatic loading of wagons, preparation of railway reciept etc. The whole system presents a fascinating sight which needs to be seen and understood by common people.

Further innovation in the distribution system as indicated above would help in fulfilling our desire to handle transport and sell bigger quantity of fertilisers in the coming years. Fertiliser production is a continuous process and consumption is seasonal. The distribution system therefore has to be in top gear to meet the coming challenges.