India’s Fertiliser Stocks Hit Two-Year High for Rabi Season
02 October 2026, New Delhi: India entered the 2026-27 rabi sowing season with fertiliser inventories at their highest level in two years, a buildup officials and industry data describe as a comfortable cushion following a kharif season marked by patchy monsoon rainfall and logistical strain.
Total fertiliser stocks stood at 17.01 million tonnes as the rabi season opened, up 38 percent from the same point a year earlier, according to industry stock data reported in late September. Urea stocks, the most heavily subsidised and widely used nutrient in Indian farming, rose the most sharply, up 54.26 percent year on year to 8.33 million tonnes. Diammonium phosphate, or DAP, stocks were more modestly higher, up around 9 percent to 3.03 million tonnes, while combined NPK and NPKS complex fertiliser stocks rose 36 percent to 5.65 million tonnes.
Demand outlook and what changed
States have projected total rabi fertiliser demand of approximately 38 million tonnes for the season, meaning current stocks cover a meaningful share of anticipated need even before fresh production and imports are added through the winter months. The buildup follows what industry reports characterised as a rather tumultuous kharif season, a reference to the combination of a weak, uneven monsoon and associated disruptions to planting and input logistics across several states this year. A stronger starting inventory for rabi suggests fertiliser companies and the government used the second half of the kharif season to rebuild buffer stocks, likely anticipating steady winter crop demand for wheat, mustard, gram and other rabi staples regardless of how the kharif harvest ultimately performed.
The comfortable stock position also follows several years in which Indian policymakers have worked to reduce the country’s exposure to volatile global fertiliser and raw material markets. In a parliamentary update earlier this year, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers J.P. Nadda told lawmakers that India remains heavily import-dependent for key fertiliser inputs, citing roughly 86 percent import dependency for rock phosphate, 100 percent for muriate of potash, and 75 to 78 percent for ammonia and the natural gas used in urea production. To manage that exposure, India has signed long-term supply agreements and memorandums of understanding covering rock phosphate with Jordan, Morocco, Togo and Mauritania, phosphoric acid with Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal, and ammonia with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Japan and Malaysia. Nadda told Parliament at the time that there was no need for farmers to panic over supply, saying stocks were adequate and farmers would receive fertiliser as needed.
Those earlier agreements appear to be part of why this rabi season opened with such a strong inventory position, insulating India to some degree from the kind of global price shocks that hit the sector in 2026, when sulfur and ammonia costs spiked sharply after shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz affected global phosphate and sulfur trade. A healthier domestic buffer reduces the risk that farmers face either physical shortages or sudden retail price increases for DAP and complex fertilisers during the critical rabi sowing window for wheat and oilseeds.
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