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India raised urea imports from Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Georgia in 2026.
Between April and June 2026, 52% of India's 2.5 million tonnes of imported urea came from these non-traditional suppliers.
The shift responds to supply disruptions linked to the West Asia war.
Urea is the most widely used nitrogenous fertiliser in Indian agriculture.
Diversifying suppliers protects domestic fertiliser availability ahead of the sowing season.
Urea is the most widely used nitrogenous fertiliser in Indian farming, and its availability is tied directly to the sowing calendar — a shortfall at the wrong moment cannot be made up later in the season. India does not produce enough to meet demand and imports the balance, so any disruption in supplying regions transmits quickly into farm inputs. Sourcing from a wider set of countries is a resilience measure: it reduces the leverage any single supplying region holds and limits the damage a regional conflict can do to the next crop.
Simple Analogy: Not buying all your groceries from one shop, so a shutter coming down does not leave you with an empty kitchen.
GS Paper III > Indian Economy > Agriculture, Subsidies and Trade
General Awareness > Economy and Trade
General Awareness > Indian Economy
The most widely used nitrogenous fertiliser in India, supplying nitrogen to crops.
A fertiliser whose principal nutrient is nitrogen, essential for vegetative plant growth.
Sourcing a commodity from multiple countries so that disruption in one does not halt supply.