Soil conditioners

Buying fertilizer in Coimbatore — what the price on the bag actually means

Start with the Soil Health Card, not the shop: it is free, it is issued in your name, and it already carries the crop-wise nutrient recommendation for your field, which is the one thing a shop counter cannot tell you. When you do buy, the price printed on the bag is the maximum you may be charged, and for urea and for the phosphatic and potassic fertilizers under the Nutrient Based Subsidy that printed price already has the subsidy inside it — the government pays the manufacturer, so there is nothing to claim afterwards at an office. Urea's price is notified statutorily and is the same in every state; complexes and DAP carry company-notified prices that change with the season; organics, water-solubles and most micronutrients are open-market and will differ from shop to shop. That is why every card here says who fixed its price. Selling above the printed price, refusing to sell, insisting you buy something else along with the bag, or holding stock back are all offences under the Fertiliser (Control) Order 1985 and the Essential Commodities Act — take the bill, photograph the bag, and report it to your block Agriculture Officer or the Kisan Call Centre. On the field side, the commonest and costliest mistake is arithmetic rather than agronomy: a 50 kg bag of DAP already supplies about 9 kg of nitrogen, and a full urea dose applied on top of it over-applies nitrogen at your own expense. agri.in lists FCO-registered fertilizers and dealers and connects you directly — we never sell, never set a dose and never add commission.