QUALITY CONTROL IN THE PHYSICAL MIXTURES
OF FERTILIZERS
The quality of all
fertilizers including physical mixtures are ensured under the
provisions of Fertilizer Control Order (1985), which strictly
prohibits the manufacture and sale of any fertilizer including
fertilizer mixtures, which does not meet the prescribed standards
and the offenders are booked for administrative and legal action
under the provisions of Fertilizer Control Order/Essential Commodities
Act, 1955. During 2001-02, out of total 11154 samples of fertilizer
mixtures (both physical and granulated) analysed in the country,
873 samples are found to be non-standard.
The Fertilizers
and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) is the only fertilizer
manufacturing Central Public Sector Undertaking that manufactures
physical mixtures of NPK fertilizers. The FACT manufactures 9
grades of such mixtures. The two mixture grade with composition
of N:P:K as 10:10:4 and 10:10:10 approximately comprise 80 per
cent of its total annual production of mixtures. The production
of fertilizer mixtures by FACT was 21936 MT in 2000-01, 18083
MT in 2001-02 and approximately 20,000 MT in 2002-03.
Fertilizer mixtures
being very soil and crop specific, their standards are prescribed
by State Governments under Clause 13(2) of Fertilizer Control
Order. Some State Governments have notified low analysis fertilizer
mixtures (having upto 25 units of nutrients) namely, Andhra Pradesh,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu
and West Bengal.
High analysis
NPK complex fertilizers having more than 35 units of nutrient
content are quite suitable for application in the smaller holdings
irrespective of the States. These besides minimizing handling,
storage and application cost, ensure balanced fertilization to
the crops if applied judiciously.
All the State
Governments including Kerala are empowered to prescribed standards
of fertilizer mixtures and its manufacture under the provisions
of FCO.
This information
was given by the Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers,
Dr. Chhattra Pal Singh, in a written reply to a question in the
Lok Sabha today.
