Fertilisers Declared Essential Commodity

To ensure the availability of good quality fertiliser to farmers, the Government of India has declared fertilisers as an essential commodity and promulgated the Fertiliser Control Order, 1985. The FCO regulates the supply, distribution and quality of fertilisers, according to Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Anupriya Patel.

Under the Order, the specification of various fertilizers has been specified in respective schedules, she told the Lok Sabha.

The FCO strictly prohibits the sale of fertilisers which are not of prescribed standard. Any violation of the provision of FCO invokes both penal action under Essential Commodity Act and administrative action under FCO.

Over the past five years, the overall exports of chemicals and petrochemicals and fertilisers have shown fluctuations, Patel said.

In respect of fertilisers, export dropped from 303604 MTs in 2019-20 to 154682 MTs in 2021-22 which, however, rose to 186148 MTs in 2022-23 and 298762 MTs in 2023-24.