What has been the impact of pandemic on fertilizer supply?

China , who is the major fertilizer exporter ,has gradually reduced their exports in view of a dip in production. this impact made countries such as India ,which sources 40-45% of its phosphatic imports from china .Urea was less impacted in China with Hubei province only accounting for around 3% of China’s total capacity.

Demand has increased ,but supply has been constrained .

• The Indian fertilizer industry is low, as the national Government exempted the agriculture sector from lockdown restrictions. The industry faced challenges in terms of raw materials and shortage of labor due to nationwide lockdown. The Indian Government took steps to ensure fertilizers are available to the farmers even during the lockdown, which resulted in the expanded sales of fertilizers.

• Improvement in the health infrastructure to deal with future pandemic shocks, `Mission Oil Palm' to tackle edible oil supply issues, bio-fuel and hydrogen fuel projects to handle fuel problems and the stress on natural farming and nano-technology.

PANDEMIC has placed an unprecedented stresses on food supply chains. they are few things to be noted :-

1. Farm production faces bottlenecks for some inputs.

2. Processing has been disrupted by labour shortages and shutdowns.

3. Mode of transport have been affected more than others .

4. Consumer demand has seen rapid and unprecedented shifts.

Impact of pandemic on Farm-gate prices in agricultural and its allied sector :

The spread of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown that was imposed by the government had a significant impact on the farm gate prices of commodities in agriculture and the allied sector. This was mainly due to the fact that with the

shutting down of major sectors of the economy, the demand for these commodities also dried up due to lack of transport, shutting down of rural markets and shops which led to a decrease in prices across many districts of the country. A total of 54% districts reported a decline in overall prices of commodities in agriculture and allied sector and 23% districts witnessed an increase in prices which can be attributed to the supply chain disruptions in some parts of the country.

by khas