Karnataka - Region Profile

The state of Karnataka covers an area of 19.1 million hectare which is 5.83 per cent of the total geographical area of India. It is the eighth largest Indian state by area. With 61.1 million inhabitants at the 2011 census, Karnataka is the ninth largest state by population, comprising of 30 districts. Nearly 56% of the workforce in Karnataka is engaged in agriculture and related activities. A total of 12.31 million hectares of land, or 64.6% of the state's total area, is cultivated. Table 1 illustrates the current area, productivity and production statistics of major crops in Karnataka.



Nutrient consumption in Karnataka in the past decade is given in Fig. 2. Total fertilizer nutrient consumption recorded an increase of 7.2% from a total of 1.531 million MT during 2012-13 to 1.641 million MT during 2013-14. During Kharif 2013, the consumption of total fertilizer nutrients increased by 35.4% whereas in Rabi 2013-14, it declined by 18.1% over the respective seasons of the previous year. Kharif: Rabi share in total consumption changed from 47:53 during 2012-13 to 60:40 during 2013-14.

Consumption of all the three nutrients increased during 2013-14. The consumption of N at 0.945 million MT, P₂O₅ at 0.442 million MT and K₂O at 0.253 million MT during 2013-14 registered increase of 6%, 13.5% and 1.4%, respectively over the previous year. NPK use ratio changed from 3.6:1.6:1 to 3.7:1.7:1 during the period. The per hectare consumption of total fertilizer nutrients increased from 127 kg during 2012-13 to 136.1 kg during the 2013-14. Using the area and production of major crops, the total nutrient (N, P₂O₅ and K₂O) removal by each crop was calculated and a nutrient balance sheet was prepared (table 2).

Table 1: Latest Crop Production Statistics of Karnataka-2012-13

Parameters	Rice	Wheat	Maize	Total Cereals	Gram	Total Pulses	Total Foodgrains	Total Oilseeds	Sugarcane	Cotton#
Area	1278	225	1322	5030	969	2269	7299	1422	425	485
Production	3364	179	3475	9604	623	1259.3	10863.3	919.6	35732	1255
Productivity	2632	796	2629	1909	643	555	1488	647	84075	440

Area ('000 ha); Production ('000 tonnes); Productivity (kg/ha); # Production and Productivity in 1000 bales of 180 kg each

Table 2: Nutrient balance sheet for major crops of Karnataka (2012-13)

Crop	Area (in '000 ha)	Production (in '000 tonnes)	Nutrient Removal (kg/tonne)			Total Removal (tonnes)
			N	P2O5	K2O	N	P2O5	K2O
Rice	1278	3364	20.1	11.2	30	67616.4	37676.8	100920
Wheat	225	179	24.4	8.6	32.8	4367.6	1539.4	5871.2
Maize	1322	3475	8.2	3.1	15.5	28495	10772.5	53862.5
Total Pulses	2269	1259.3	40	5	20	50372	6296.5	25186
Total Oilseeds	1422	919.6	54	14	46	49658.4	12874.4	42301.6
Sugarcane	425	35732	1.7	0.2	2	60744.4	7146.4	71464
		Total removal by major crops				261253.8	76306	299605.3
		Total fertilizer consumption in Karnataka				891690	389640	249870
		Consumption * Efficiency factor				356676	116892	174909
		Balance/Deficit				95422.2	40586	-124696

Efficiency of N=40%; P2O5= 30%; and K2O=70%

*Crop production and fertilizer use data are retrieved from Fertilizer Statistics, 2013-14, The Fertilizer Association of India, New Delhi