India, a net importer of urea, is set to become an exporting nation in the next 5 years with an addition of 10 million tonnes (MT) in fertiliser production capacity at an estimated investment of Rs 60,000 crore, Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar said.

While speaking in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Kumar said, “We all know India imports urea…we are going to produce 10 million tonnes more urea in coming years.”

This will help realise the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India urea exporting country, Kumar said.

The Minister added that the government is working on revival and expansion plans with regard to 9 fertiliser (urea) plants in 5 years with an investment of Rs 60,000 crore, and the work has already been started on it.

Kumar said the government has already started the revival process of closed fertiliser plants in Talcher and Ramagundam.

While for the other two plants in Gorakhpur and Barouni, the Cabinet has already given its approval, Kumar said.

For Sindri plant, the ministry is working on its revival process, he said. Besides reviving these five plants, Kumar said new plants will be set up by Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilsiers at Thal in Maharashtra and by BVFCL in Assam.

The Minister also added there are proposals to set up plants in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. After all these plants get functional, India’s urea production will increase by another 10 MT to 32 MT.

The Minister also said that his ministry is considering paying fertiliser subsidy directly to farmers but the main challenge is that the 50 percent of the cultivators of land are not its owners.

He also invited suggestions for educating the farmers about balanced use of urea, as its imbalanced use is deteriorating the soil health.