1

Marketing Strategies

for Specialty Fertilizers

M N BhaskaranExecutive Vice President – Downstream Business

Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited

Hyderabad - India

• Value Proposition in Food Chain

• Food security is nothing but Nutrient Security

• Solutions to enhance both productivity and Nutrient Value

• Marketing strategy for Specialty Fertilizers• Nutrigation

• Marketing strategy for Nutrient Enhance Drivers • Foliar feeding

• CFG for field crops

• Slow and Control Release Fertilizers

• Conclusions

Presentation Flow

2

• To Produce ample nutrients for posterity

• To Nurture plants with appropriate nutrition to safe guard planet

• To Promote the products to make customer realize value for its price

• To Produce protein for people at affordable price

Value Proposition in Food Chain

• Water is vital to life

Sources : Ground water, Rain, Lakes, Canal, Rivers. Precious input on the planet

• Nutrient to nurture, nourish life forms

Source: Nutrient stock in the soil, Different combinations of Fertilizers

• Water & Nutrient are sine qua non for food security

Enhance Nutrient value of produce

Enhance productivity while maintaining soil healthFood Security

Pivotal inputs for Agriculture

3

• Nearly 600 million Indians depend directly on Agriculture (54%)

• Agriculture contributed around 16.6% of GDP in 2010-11

• India’s food grain output is set to touch all time record of 235.88 million tones

• India has produced a record of 17.29 million tones of Pulses

• Food grain acreage are saturated

• Farmers are now shifting to commercial and F&V crops

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0

10

20

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40

50

60

Rice

Pulse

s

Whea

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Cotto

n

Mai

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Veg

etab

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Sug

arca

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Fruits

Oil

seeds

Crop

% s

hif

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Series1

Snap shot on Agriculture Scenario

• Judicious use of water helps to enhance water use efficiency

• Field studies clearly demonstrate that irrigation raises yields significantly for FNV

• Net returns in case of FNV cultivation rise dramatically with the availability of irrigation

• Chance to improve further 50% more yield Micro Irrigation potential of India is exploited

• Most of the state governments are encouraging Micro Irrigation projects

• Currently around 5.0 million ha has been covered under MI

• MI facilitate WSF to pass through Drip lines to enhance both WUE & NUE

Micro Irrigation (MI)

4

• Horticulture sector contributing around 24% of Agri GDP.

• In global trade our share remains low at 1.7% & 0.5% of V&F respectively.

• Non implementation of BMP s in horticultural sector is the cause of concern.

• Minimizing environmental impact while maintaining high yields is order of the day.

• F&V is one of the constituents in food chain and directly contributes

the food security.

• Dire need to design extension programs to improve productivity.

Snap shot on Horticultural scenario

Others

2008-09Million MT

Urea 26.6

DAP 9

Complex 7

SSP 2.5

Potash 5

0.1

Total 50.2

SSP

DAP 10.3

2010-11Million MT

Urea 28.2

Complex 10.2

3.5

Potash 5.8

Total 59

+ 46%

+ 18%

1951 - 2007 2007 - 2011 2012……

Urea , DAPMulti-nutrient

ComplexesCustomized

Fertilizers

Paradigm Shift from Generic to Specialty

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• Government support

• Subsidy available

• Product Awareness levels are high

• Doest not required special promotion

• Logistics based

Traditional Fertilizers - Strengths

• Low NUE

• Indiscriminate usage due to low cost

• Imbalanced application due to subsidy

• Higher levels of soil and water contamination

• Standard combinations to all type of soils

Traditional Fertilizers - Weakness & Threats

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• To enhance Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUF)

• Nutrigation and Foliar techniques using WSF for F&V crops

• To produce exportable produce

• CFG for tailor made nutrient management for field crops

Need For Innovative Specialty Fertilizers

Cultural change- Food Security- Better tomorrow

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11* 2011-12

Fertigation 1500 4000 5000 6300 7000 9400 12500 14000 21000 25500 33100 45600 57000 78000

Foliar 1000 1500 2000 2300 2600 2600 3500 4500 6000 5000 4700 14000 18000 22000

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

Qty

in

mt

WSF Market size

7

•Synergy with Micro Irrigation (MI)

•Lot of encouragement for MI from state governments

•Impetus on fertigation/ Nutrigation

•Market size is growing steadily

•Can be offered stage wise recommendation to enhance NUE

•No fixation and No soil pollution

Strengths & Opportunities of SF

Weakness & Threats

• Concept selling

• Totally Imported fertilizers (except WS-NPK)

• Shortage of supply in the peak seasons

• Extensive customer education

• SF are expensive in comparison to bulk fertilizers

• No Subsidy and fluctuating international prices

• Farmers desist use SF owing to disproportionate expenditure

8

Market Segmentation Approach

• Intensive Farmer Contact Program (IFCP)

• Technical Film screening through Audio Visual Vans

• Mailing Letters

• Village Meetings

• Crop Seminars

• Dealer Training Programs

• Field visits

• Farmers Clubs

Marketing Strategy for SF

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Foliar Feeding

• Supplement

In addition to soil application

• Prophylactic

Prevent nutrient disorders

• Curative

Repair mechanism

• Contingent – Exigency

Stress due to accumulation of water

Foliar Feeding

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Marketing Strategy

• Emphasis on Foliar & Nutrigation

Fruits & Vegetables

• Dealer Education

Make them aware of Techniques

Sub-dealers meetings

• Village meetings with AV Vans

Farmers to farmer contact

Number of village meetings

Strategy to be adopted

12

CF Marketing Strategy

• Designed to release plant nutrients throughout the growth season

• Require single, pre-plant application

• Made of granular fertilizers encapsulated in a polymer resin coating.

Nutrient core

Polymer coating

Slow & Controlled Release Fertilizer (SCRF)

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After application, the granule takes up

moisture over a period of 7-10 days,

depending on the longevity of the product.

SCRF Technology

Release carries on through

the growth season according to the soil temperature.

If it drops – so does the release rate.

SCRF Technology

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Core

Coating

Scanning Electron Micrograph of SCRF

The challenges:

• Reduce nutrients rate (higher NUE)

• Reduce ground water contamination

• Save water (no tech. irrigation)

• Simple nutrition operation

• Save manpower (single application)

SCRF - New Generation Fertilizers

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SCRF are different NPK blends meant for soil applications.

SCRF have fast-acting nutrients ingredients in them.

SCRF - NPK Fertilizers Blends

• All extension programs are to be designed keeping the value chain in mind (plant –people - planet)

• Plenty of opportunities to improve qualitative F&V products by adopting Nutrigation with WSF

• Foliar feeding should be popularized to enhance nutrient value of the produce

• Slow and Control Release fertilizers are new generation fertilizers to avoid ground water contamination

• Positioning strategy and provide solutions to customer is sine qua non for SF

• Communication to customer about SF s has to be made practice on regular basis.

Conclusions

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Thank you

for your attention