India is one of the leading food producers in the World. Fertilizers play a very important role in Indian agriculture. Fertilizer use in India was started in the early 1950. Initially fertilizer consumption was very modest. But during the green revolution era (in late 1960s), fertilizer use started gaining importance when the high yielding varieties, irrigation and credit brought about increased food production. According to the latest report of State of Indian Agriculture (2011-12), consumption of nitrogenous (N), phosphatic (P) and potassic (K) fertilizers has increased from 1.1 million tones in 1966-67, the year preceding the green revolution to 28.2 million tonnes in 2010-11. The food grain production increased from 74 million tonnes in 1966-67 to 241.56 million tonnes in 2010-11.
Indian government has declared Fertilizer as an essential commodity. The Fertilizer (Control) Order was promulgated to regulate the price, quality and distribution of fertilizers in the country.