Urea Sales on Hold in State, To Restart by June
Hyderabad: The state government has stopped the sale of urea as the rabi crop season has ended and plans to resume sales by June as farmers begin operations from the kharif season, which usually coincides with the arrival of the southwest monsoon.
The state has urea stock of 1.5 lakh tonnes. According to official sources, urea sales exceeded the amount purchased by farmers last year – 11.2 lakh tonnes during the rabbin season this year compared to 10.42 lakh tonnes in the same season last year.
Sources said the application of urea was introduced earlier this year. It had suspended animation since mid-April, but it would be back up and running by June, he added.
Meanwhile, when the app was launched in December last year to facilitate sales across multiple tranches, farmers reported problems using the app as not all requirements for a crop season were used at once. Although there were some complaints from farmers that urea was not available despite reservations being made through the application, the system settled down after a while.
Sources said that there is no need to worry at this point, there is enough stock for the start of the kharif season and the allocation for Telangana for the upcoming season is 10 lakh tonnes which should be more than enough.
The actual urea requirement in Telangana, if used and implemented scientifically, should be around 6.5 to 7 lakh tonnes for the kharif season. “More than 7 lakh tonnes of urea used is just overuse,” an agriculture ministry official said.
To achieve the target of reducing urea demand, the government has started making efforts to dissuade farmers from being overly dependent on urea and chemical fertilizers, he added. “We hope these efforts will bear fruit and reduce the demand for urea during the kharif season. The ministry, with the help of all elected representatives, is already reaching out to farmers to educate them about unnecessary use of urea,” the official added.
“If this happens, urea consumption in Kharif may see a significant decline compared to 9.8 lakh tonnes used in the same crop season last year,” the official said.
urea status
Official urea purchase app in suspended animation.
We will probably start working on Kharif from June.
The current urea stock is: 1.5 LT*.
State allocation for Kharif: 10 LT.
2025 kharif urea usage: 9.8 LT.
The government plans to peg the usage at 7 LT this Kharif.
Urea usage during rabi period last year: 10.42 LT.
Urea usage during rabi season this year: 11.2 LT.
* Lakh tons
Government concerned about overuse of urea
While the state government has expressed concern over farmers’ excessive use of urea, agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao has flagged the issue and called for reducing dependence on fertilisers.
In a recent meeting on the state’s preparations for a possible El Niño-affected monsoon season, Nageswara Rao had expressed concerns that farmers growing almost monocrops and growing monocrops in large areas was contributing to excessive use of urea. Heavy reliance on urea, which is cheaper than complex fertilizers, was causing the soil to lose its natural nutrients and forcing farmers to rely more on chemical fertilizers. The Minister had said that urea has become the preferred fertilizer as it is the cheapest.
Nageswara Rao had also called for urgent steps to be taken to inform farmers about the dangers of excessive use of urea by the agriculture department; This effort is also supported by all elected representatives invited to participate in this mission.
Meanwhile, amid concerns over India’s urea availability situation, especially given the uncertainties arising from the war between the United States and Iran, a significant portion of ready-to-use urea, around 25 percent according to some estimates, is imported from the affected Gulf region. India also imports natural gas from the same region, which is not only an important source of raw materials for ammonia but is also used as fuel in urea production facilities.
While the Center has already relaxed natural gas import norms, expanded sources from non-Gulf regions and announced increased allocations to fertilizer plants, the current stock remains a cause for concern, the last data released in April.
According to the Centre’s data, as of April 1, India had a stock of around 55 lakh tonnes of urea. In a reply published in the Rajya Sabha last year, the government had said that the annual urea consumption in the country in 2025 was 385.52 lakh tonnes.
India urea consumption
2023-24: 357.81 LT*
2024-25: 357.26
Imports
2022-23: 75.80 LT
2023-24: 70.82 LT
2024-25**: 51.69 LT
* Lakh tons
** Until February 2025; All data of the government are answered in Rajya Sabha
