India’s urgent need for promoting alternate fertilisers for domestic self-sufficiency has come to the forefront with the ongoing geopolitical conflicts in West Asia and the resultant supply disruptions. Moreover, global fertiliser supplies came under pressure and prices rose by about 14% in 2025 due to the changing trade policies and restrictions of major trading countries. India, being heavily dependent on imports for raw materials and feedstock for chemical fertiliser production, is exposed to the high risks of global supply disruptions and price volatilities, apart from the loss of precious foreign exchange.Such a scenario provides an opportunity for the government to reorient fertiliser policy to scale-up and promote production and use of alternate fertilisers like organic and bio-fertilisers towards achieving domestic self-reliance in fertiliser production in the country.Dire needIn addition to the substantial dependency on import, the existing fertiliser policy is aiding in indiscriminate and excessive use of chemical fertilisers with subsidies. Fertiliser subsidies rose sharply since 2019-20 onwards stood at Rs.1.86 lakh crore in 2025-26 as per the Revised Estimate, which is more than double compared to Rs.0.8 lakh crore in 2019-20. It is important to note in this context is that the fertiliser subsidy, intended for farmers for enhancing agricultural production, is still given to fertiliser industry instead of directly giving to farmers.In addition, the continuous and excessive use of chemical fertilisers has also been resulting to serious negative externalities such as reduced soil productivity due to accumulation of chemicals and pollution of soil and water, severe deficiency of soil organic carbon and micronutrients. In this regard, a recent study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) shows that inefficient use of fertilisers is resulting to low nitrogen and organic carbon respectively in 64% and 48.5% of soils tested. Thus, the existing fertiliser policy needs to be revamped as it is not only promoting indiscriminate use of highly import dependent chemical fertilisers with mounting fiscal burden but also leading to unsustainable agricultural practices adversely impacting soil health and productivity.Challenges and way forwardTo reduce excessive chemical fertiliser use and promote balanced use of organic and chemical fertilisers, various policy measures were initiated with schemes such as soil health card (SHC) scheme in 2015 and the PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) in 2023. In addition, schemes to promote organic and natural farming such as Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region, are also introduced. However, the extent of their success in reducing chemical fertiliser use appears to be very limited so far.While the first step, testing of soils appears to be picking up with about 116 lakh soil samples collected and about 97.6 lakh SHCs generated in 2025-26, but progress in shifting to optimal and judicious use of chemical and alternate non-chemical fertilisers appears to be slow. Major reasons for such limited progress in using organic and bio-fertilisers include limited rise in production, issues with quality control, low preference from farmers, lack of awareness, relatively cumbersome in application compared to chemical fertilisers, etc.Production of organic fertilisers has not yet picked up momentum and remains slow and erratic. Total production of organic fertilisers in the country has in fact declined to 80 lakh tonnes in 2024-25 from about 127 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. In order to effectively reduce chemical fertilisers, the first and foremost requirement is the adequate availability of alternate organic and bio-fertilisers at affordable prices. Production of such alternate fertilisers needs to be scaled up by providing adequate support and level playing field for the manufacturers of organic and bio-fertilisers.Another major challenge is ensuring quality with increasing instances of failed quality tests with inferior quality and spurious bio and organic fertiliser products. Further. Deterioration of quality is apparently increasing over the period. The extent of spurious bio-fertiliser samples failing the quality tests increased from 1% in 2013-14 to 44% in 2019-20 according to a study of CSE. In addition, there is limited availability of testing facilities with only 8 states having government-owned notified testing laboratories.It is also essential to create widespread awareness among farmers about the harmful long-term impacts of excessive chemical fertiliser application on soil and the need to adopt optimal and balanced application for chemical and non-chemical fertilisers for ensuring sustainable soil health and crop productivity. In addition to the subsidised prices, chemical fertilisers are preferred for their easy availability, handling and usage especially compared to organic fertilisers.Towards this, there is a need to promote innovation in devising methods for easy handling and use of organic fertilisers. Hence, for successful adoption of alternate fertilisers, it is vital to create awareness among farmers about the benefits and importance of using non-chemical fertilisers and need for reducing use of chemical fertilisers.Thus, to shift successfully away from import dependent burdensome chemical fertilisers and achieving self-sufficiency in domestic fertiliser production, there is a need to reorient the existing fertiliser policy to scale-up production and use of organic and bio-fertilisers with requisite strategies. This will provide adequate support & level playing field for manufactures, ensure quality and create awareness among farmers.Amarender Reddy is joint director at Policy Support Research, ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management (ICAR-NIBSM), Raipur. Tulsi Lingareddy is a senior economist at Sustainable Finance and Agriculture, Mumbai.