S and Economic Returns from its Use |
At current nutrient and grain prices, it costs less than 0.6 kg of cereals and even less than 0.4 kg of pulses /oilseeds to pay for 1 kg S. For illustrative purposes, price of cereals has been taken as Rs 10.0/kg and Rs 15.00/kg of pulses/oilseeds. The extra response (yield increase) all goes towards the profits as depicted in the table below.
Kilograms of cereals, pulses and oilseeds needed to pay for
1 kg of N, P, K and S at present prices.
Nutrient |
Retail price*Rs/kg |
Kg grain needed to pay for 1 kg nutrient |
N (as Urea) |
10.50 |
1.00 for cereals, |
P2O5 (as DAP) |
16.22 |
i.60 for cereals. |
K2O (as MOP) |
7.43 |
0.74 for cereals. |
S (average) |
5.70 |
0.60 for cereals |
*retail prices of nutrient based on FAI Fertiliser Statistics
Based on average response rates, the VCRs as a result of S application are very attractive, ranging from 8 to 34 as illustrated in the figure below.
Value cost ratios for S fertilization in 10 selected crops.
More recent results (from the TSI-FAI-IFA Project) shown in the table below corroborate the earlier findings of the high level of profitability from S application in S deficient areas.
Economic returns from S application to various crops under field conditions
Crop |
Value:Cost Ratio (VCR) at three S application rates |
||
15 kg S/ha |
30 kg S/ha |
45 kg S/ha |
|
Rice |
36.8 |
29.9 |
21.5 |
Wheat |
24.0 |
25.0 |
16.6 |
Maize |
19.1 |
25.9 |
21.1 |
Sorghum |
18.0 |
13.2 |
9.6 |
Pearlmillet |
16.0 |
17.8 |
18.5 |
Greengram |
8.0 |
7.5 |
6.7 |
Blackgram |
14.6 |
13.6 |
15.0 |
Pea |
23.9 |
15.7 |
12.1 |
Soybean |
26.7 |
21.2 |
15.9 |
Mustard |
15.5 |
15.1 |
12.3 |
Groundnut |
15.5 |
15.4 |
10.1 |
| Sunflower | 20.6 |
16.3 |
20.1 |
| Potato | 10.0 |
10.0 |
6.0 |
| Onion | 51.3 |
38.0 |
16.0 |
| Garlic | 35.7 |
28.3 |
20.8 |
Range |
8.0 – 51.3 |
7.5 – 38.0 |
6.0 – 22.2 |
S application was highly profitable at all rates of application tested and brought attractive economic returns to farmers. .Considering that a VCR of 2.5 is generally accepted as the minimum desirable for the adoption of a practice, based on the direct response alone, the VCR ranged from 8.0 to 51.3 at the application rate of 15 kg S/ha, from 7.5 to 38.0 at 30 kg S/ha and from 6.0 to 22.0 at 45 kg S/ha, which indicate S fertilization is very profitable. In no case was the VCR less than 6.
Out of 45 cases (crops x rates of S), the VCR was in the range of 5.0-15.0 in 14 (31%) cases, 15.1-25.0 in 23 (51%) cases and above 25 in 8 (18%) cases. The benefit was much higher when the residual effect (carryover benefit) of the S application on the succeeding crop in the rotation was also taken into consideration. The 4th major nutrient is thus No.1 in profitability.
