Copyright thehindubusinessline
The government is planning to market “Ammonium sulphate” as a better alternative to urea, after bringing it under the fertiliser subsidy scheme from this Rabi season. Accordingly, the same subsidy of Rs 43.02/kg for nitrogen and Rs 2.87/kg for sulphur will also apply to ammonium sulphate. “It has been decided to include Ammonium sulphate (both domestic as well as imported) under the nutrient based subsidy (NBS) scheme for Rabi 2025-26 (October 2025-March 2026),” the fertiliser ministry said in a notification. After this notification, the subsidy on AS 20.5-0-0-23 variety of Ammonium sulphate will be ₹9,479 per tonne, the government said. The AS 20.5-0-0-23 variety contains 20.5 per cent nitrogen and 23 per cent sulphur, with no phosphate or potash. Cheaper and soil-friendly “The per bag (of 50 kg) subsidy of AS 20.5-0-0-23 variety will come to nearly ₹474. As the current rate was about ₹1,100-1,200 per bag, which was prohibitive for many farmers to buy it, after the subsidy, the retail price is likely to drop to around ₹700/bag,” an industry source said. “Since Ammonium Sulphate releases nitrogen (N) slowly, compared to urea, its inclusion under subsidy will help raise its demand, provided the government also starts increasing urea’s retail price from the current ₹267/bag (of 45 kg) periodically. Ammonium Sulphate, though contains less nitrogen than urea (having 46 per cent N), it is still a better option for the soil as well as crop health amid the indiscriminate use of urea,” said A K Singh, an agriculture scientist. In the last Kharif season, the subsidy on AS 20.5-0-0-23 variety was ₹9,419/tonne, and the hike in subsidy was due to an upward revision in the subsidy rate of sulphur, which was ₹2.61/kg during the Kharif sowing period of 2025, official sources said. However, there was no clarity on Ammonium Sulphate earlier, which has now been clearly mentioned in the October 29 notification, the sources said. Demand and availability The fertiliser ministry on November 3 said that, against an estimated demand of 185.39 lakh tonnes (lt) of urea during Kharif 2025 (April-September), actual sales were 193.20 lt, which is 4.08 lt more than the year-ago period. It also said that the demand could be met as the availability was 230.53 lt. However, there were many reports from across states of a shortage of urea in Kharif 2025, leading to requests from state agriculture ministers and chief ministers to the Centre for additional supplies. Some ministers themselves were part of inspection teams at the retailer/dealer level to verify complaints of shortages and black marketing. While the fertiliser ministry statement claimed that the urea stock on October 1, 2025, was 48.64 lt, the agriculture ministry’s crop weather watch group, sources said, formed the view that the actual stock was 37.33 lt. Since the data on fertiliser sales and availability were withdrawn from public access a few years back, there is no way to validate any claim, the sources said. “It is surprising that against a requirement of 39.68 lt of urea only in October, only 15.37 lt have been sold during first 24 days when there has been a 15 per cent increase in crop sown area last month after winter crops sowing season began,” an official source said. But he did not rule out the possibility of higher stocks at farmers’ levels from Kharif-season buying, given lower demand. Published on November 4, 2025
