Amidst the Israel-US Iran war (which has entered the 4th week and no one expects it to end), a shortage of crude oil and natural gas is being seen all over the world. Meanwhile, a crisis of shortage of urea, DAP, and sulfur is seen emerging in many countries, including India.
SNPNEWS.IN News (Gurmail Kamboj): Israel-US Iran war which has been going on continuously since February 28, during which Israel and America targeted Iran’s South Pars Gas field and oil production units, in response to which Iran targeted oil and natural gas production units of Gulf countries including Israel, Qatar, Dubai, UAE, due to which there are reports of heavy destruction in Gulf countries. Apart from this, due to the closure of Strait of Hormuz, LNG and oil exports have been limited, which is becoming a cause of concern for the whole world.
Punjab who consumes about 9-10% of India’s total urea, DAP fertilizers, and pesticide consumption. The current situation in the Gulf countries has started to cause fear and anxiety among the farmers of the border state of India. Farmers of Punjab (which is famous as a potato seed producer across India and produces 5.7% of the country’s potatoes) are worried due to the limited supply of natural gas, LNG, fertilizer and crude oil coming from the Gulf countries during the Israel-US-Iran war.
Currently, the potato crop is being harvested in Punjab, after which maize and other crops will be cultivated on a large scale, for which reports of hoarding and black marketing of essential DAP and urea fertilizers have started coming out. There are reports of closure of some urea production units in the country due to shortage of LNG in the market, due to which farmers fear that there will be shortage of urea fertilizer during the crops after the current potato crop and the upcoming paddy season. Due to which some farmers have started hoarding urea.
Read It : India: Israel-US-Iran war will cause shortage of fertilizers.
After talking to fertilizer retailers in Punjab (which consumes about 9-10% of India’s total urea, DAP and pesticide consumption), it was found that in the current situation, the supply of urea and DAP fertilizers is very low, due to which they are supplying fertilizers to their associated farmers as per their requirement, while most farmers talk about buying fertilizers for the upcoming Kharif season due to rumors and fear.
After Iran targeted Qatar’s LNG (India’s 40% LNG supply) and oil units of Gulf countries like UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia (major exporters of DAP and other fertilizers to India), production has been severely reduced or stopped and the Strait of Hormuz (the route for the supply of 20% of the world’s LNG and 20-25% of crude oil) has been closed, there is an atmosphere of fear among the farmers of the country.
The biggest cause of concern for farmers is that about 80-86% of the gas used by India for urea production is imported. Due to which the smile on their faces has disappeared.
CropLife India has warned that the agricultural input cost may increase by 20-25% due to the conflict in West Asia. Raw materials (intermediates), solvents, and shipping routes (like the Strait of Hormuz) are being affected due to this war. The formulation process is being affected due to the export of imported raw materials required for Emulsifiable Concentrate (EC) formulations (which are very common in India). Due to which the increase in the prices of EC formulations started to appear 2-3 months before the Kharif season.
The annual consumption of urea in the country (India) is 370-400 lakh tonnes, DAP 90-110 lakh tonnes and pesticides 55000-62000 tonnes. A large part of which is dependent on imports. The Indian government has tried to increase production by purchasing excess gas from the spot market (such as 7.31 MMSCMD) due to the low import of fertilizers, natural gas, and crude oil imported from Gulf countries. Considering the situation, the government is importing more urea from Russia, China, Morocco, etc.