Rajasthan - Region Profile

Rajasthan, known as "the land of kings", is the largest state of the Republic of India. It is located in the northwest of India. Rajasthan covers 10.4% of India, an area of 34.2 million hectare and has a population of 68.6 million people. Rajasthan's economy is primarily agricultural and pastoral. Wheat and barley are cultivated over large areas, as are pulses, sugarcane, and oilseeds. Cotton and tobacco are the state's cash crops. Rajasthan is among the largest producers of edible oils in India and the second largest producer of oilseeds. Table 1 illustrates the current area, productivity and production statistics of major crops in Rajasthan.

Nutrient consumption in Rajasthan in the past decade is given in Fig. 2. The total nutrient consumption in the state declined by 9.4%, from 1.344 million MT during 2012-13 to 1.218 million MT during 2013-14. While the growth in consumption of total nutrients was positive in Kharif, it was negative in Rabi season. The consumption in Kharif 2013 increased by 3.2% whereas it declined by 17.1% in Rabi 2013-14 over the respective seasons in the previous year. Kharif : Rabi share in total fertilizer consumption changed from 38:62 in 2012-13 to 43:57 during 2013-14.

During full year, all the three nutrients recorded negative growth. The consumption of N at 0.931 million MT, P₂O₅ at 0.282 million MT and K₂O at 5.2 thousand MT witnessed fall of 3.7%, 20.8% and 76% respectively, during 2013-14 over 2012-13. NPK use ratio changed from 44.9:16.5:1 during 2012-13 to 180.3:54.6:1 during 2013-14. The per hectare consumption of fertilizer nutrients declined from 54.9 kg to 49.7 kg during the period. 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 Rajasthan-2012-13

Parameters	Rice	Wheat	Maize	Total Cereals	Gram	Total Pulses	Total Foodgrains	Total Oilseeds	Sugarcane	Cotton#
Area	125.6	3063.2	986.2	9165.6	1252.9	3245.6	12411.2	4912.2	5.5	450
Production	222.5	9275.5	1755.1	16410.9	1277.4	1956.8	18367.7	6364.6	401.8	1400
Productivity	1771	3028	1780	1790	1019	603	1480	1296	73056	529

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 Rajasthan (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	125.6	222.5	20.1	11.2	30	4472.25	2492	6675
Wheat	3063.2	9275.5	24.4	8.6	32.8	226322	79769.3	304236.4
Maize	986.2	1755.1	8.2	3.1	15.5	14391.8	5440.81	27204.05
Total Pulses	3245.6	1956.8	40	5	20	78272	9784	39136
Total Oilseeds	4912.2	6364.6	54	14	46	343688	89104.4	292771.6
Sugarcane	5.5	401.8	1.7	0.2	2	683.06	80.36	803.6
		Total removal by major crops				667830	186670.9	670826.65
		Total fertilizer consumption in Rajasthan				966560	356110	21530
		Consumption * Efficiency factor				386624	106833	15071
		Balance/Deficit				-281206	-79837.87	-655755.65

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

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