Why India Wants Faster Approvals for New Fertilisers

The Union government is planning to make it quicker and easier to approve certain new fertilisers in India. At present, no new fertiliser can be sold in the country until it is registered under the Fertiliser (Control) Order of 1985, a regulation that governs the manufacture, import and sale of crop nutrients. A company must submit a detailed dossier on the product's chemical make-up, how it is made, and its safety, followed by field trials at several locations for at least two crop seasons to prove it actually improves yields. A central committee then reviews the data before approving or rejecting the product.

The problem is speed. Officials and industry say it takes more than 800 days to register a new fertiliser in India, compared with around 90 days in the United States, about 30 in the European Union and Japan, and just 15 in Vietnam. The government is now considering exempting fertilisers that already meet set quality and safety standards from the mandatory field trials. An in-principle agreement has been reached, and the reform will be finalised after consultations with the farm research body, industry and state governments. This is expected to bring new products to farmers much faster.

There is a strong financial backdrop to this move. The government's fertiliser subsidy bill for 2026-27 is set to touch about Rs 3.4 lakh crore, far above the budgeted figure and well past earlier records. A subsidy is government money that keeps fertiliser prices low for farmers. Heavily subsidised products like urea are widely used but inefficient: only about 30 to 40 percent of the nitrogen in urea is actually used by the crop, with the rest lost to the air or washed into groundwater. The government wants to encourage non-subsidised, specialised products, such as water-soluble and slow-release fertilisers, which deliver nutrients far more efficiently and can be applied precisely through drip irrigation.

For farmers, faster approvals could mean quicker access to advanced products tailored to specific crops and growth stages, helping them get more output from each unit of nutrient. This is especially valuable as the cost of imported fertilisers and raw materials has climbed. Safeguards would remain: companies must still meet minimum nutrient levels, stay within limits on harmful contaminants like heavy metals, and label products accurately, with checks done after the product reaches the market rather than before.

For exam aspirants, this story links agricultural policy, the fertiliser subsidy burden, nutrient-use efficiency, and the broader theme of balancing regulation with ease of doing business, useful across economy, agriculture and current-affairs sections.