Fertiliser biz fine, agrochem usage affected: Zuari Agro

So overall the fertiliser business has been fine but agrochemical usage has been affected because the crop condition has not been very good in terms of the standing crops and that may have an impact on the overall production – as we enter the harvest season by end of this month and early next month, so overall it has been mixed kind of a development for the industry and fertiliser is ok but seed has been alright because sowings are good but agrochemicals are the ones which has got somewhat affected because farmers have delayed or postponed their application of pest control measures.

Reema: So when you say agri usage has been affected, any numbers to give us, how much lower would it be compared to last year?

A: I don’t think at this point in time it is possible to put out any numbers as far as agrochem sales is concerned but fertiliser sales I can say has grown over the last year but that is a function partly because of the demand which has remained due to sowing levels being there and partly because past year has lot of pipeline inventories, so this year that has been run down. So that has also led to some sale.

Nigel: So what we have seen so far is the deficiency hasn’t really affected, but we just heard from the MET department and they are expecting 20-25 percent deficiency for the month of September. Now that could have some kind of impact, that is the first part of the question. The second part is what is the state of moisture levels in soil currently in different geographies?

A: As far as deficiency in the month of September is concerned, it will have very minimum impact because we are now in the last stages of the crop cycle as far as kharif crops are concerned, so it will not have much impact but yes it is early part in some of the kharif areas like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Eastern states like Orissa and Bengal, if it doesn’t rain now in the early part which I am told it will rain, so that will lead to actually good grain formation and if that happens, we may see good production levels also being achieved despite rains being deficient but having said that, overall going forward what we expect is that barring the catchment areas of Maharashtra like Vidarbha, Marathwada, Northern Karnataka which have been affected and there the moisture 4.10 is there in the soil but rest of the country is by and large ok and we expect the Rabi sowing should be normal and Rabi in any case has less water consuming crops as compared to Kharif, so North-West which is likely to receive shortfall rains in September, has enough groundwater facilities which will enable the sowing levels should be normal. So we expect that by October-November when the peak of Rabi sowing starts, things in the North, North-West –East in any case moisture levels are very good, South peninsula by and large is good barring few areas in Andhra, Northern Karnataka etc., so overall I would imagine above average sowing levels.