Exclusive interview with Mr. Manoj Mishra – Managing Director, Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited
13 February 2025, New Delhi: As India’s agriculture sector continues to evolve, policy shifts play a crucial role in shaping the strategies of key industry players. With the government reducing fertilizer subsidies, pushing for uniform branding through the Bharat brand, and advocating for precision agriculture via Agri Stack, companies like Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited must navigate these changes while ensuring affordability and accessibility for farmers.
Mr. Manoj Mishra – Managing Director, Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited
In this exclusive conversation with Krishak Jagat, Mr. Manoj Mishra, Managing Director of Matix Fertilisers, shares insights into how the company is adapting to financial tightening, balancing branding with national mandates, promoting soil health, integrating digital solutions, and tackling supply chain challenges in a volatile global market.
Q. With the government reducing the fertilizer subsidy allocation to ₹1.64 trillion for FY 2024-25, down from ₹1.95 trillion in the previous year, how does Matix Fertilisers plan to adapt to this financial tightening? Are there strategies in place to ensure that reduced subsidies do not affect farmer affordability or fertilizer availability?
Government of India determines the fertilizer subsidy budget by considering prevailing fertilizer prices, raw material costs, intermediaries, and projected consumption. Based on these factors, the current allocation of ₹1.67 trillion for 2025-26 appears adequate to meet subsidy requirements.
Additionally, in previous years, if there has been an increase in raw material or international fertilizer prices, especially of imports, the government has proactively introduced supplementary budget provisions to address any additional funding needs.
The subsidy disbursement mechanism of Government of India has been functioning efficiently, with no delays in recent years. We expect this trend to continue, ensuring smooth financial operations for companies and uninterrupted fertilizer availability and affordability for farmers.
Therefore, given the budget provision and government’s responsive approach, we don’t foresee any impact on the finances of fertilizer companies, supply chains, or farmers access to fertilizers.
Q. The government’s push for the Bharat brand packaging for fertilizers aims to create uniformity and promote national identity. How has this initiative impacted Matix Fertilisers in terms of branding and marketing? Are there any challenges in aligning your in-house brands with this national packaging mandate?
As a new entrant, the Matix brand has been built around quality and reach. Our 60,000+ point of sales across the 9 operational states are driven by the goal of reach. Bulk fertilizers viz. Urea, NPK, DAP and MOP being sold under a unified brand, ‘Bharat’, only strengthens the promise of quality and timely produce as well as ensures emphasis on quality product and not a specific brand. Hence, the impact of national packaging mandate on Matix has not been so significant as compared to other companies with well established brands.
Our non-Bharat products are aligned with our marketing strategy of enhancing the Matix brand.
It is important to clarify that even in the Bharat brand packaging, Government of India allocates about 1/3rd space which allows the company to brand as well.
Q. Given the environmental concerns and soil health challenges linked to the overuse of nitrogenous fertilizers like urea, what role is Matix playing in promoting balanced fertilizers such as NPKs or bio-fertilizers? Are there plans to introduce more sustainable or innovative products in the coming years?
It would be a misnomer to state that the usage of nitrogenous fertilisers leads to environmental challenges. The consumption of nitrogenous fertiliser varies in different parts India. In the eastern part of India, fertilizer consumption stands at 158.4 kilograms per hectare whereas in the northern part of India the figure stands at 212.4 kilograms per hectare. Hence, the need of the hour is Balanced Fertilizer usage to ensure soil health.
Other than Urea, DAP, NPK and MOP, Matix offers specialty fertiliser range and uses its robust distribution chain to reach the end consumer. Our specialty fertiliser range includes –
We also distribute crop protection products through our 60,000+ retailers.
Matix understands that farmers are at the forefront in tackling climate change. This extends to our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in which Matix provides a Mobile Soil Testing Van (MSTV) equipped with various state of the art instruments which regularly visits multiple villages providing farmers Soil Health Card and guidance towards Balanced Fertiliser usage from our experts. Tests conducted within MSTV include analysis of hydrogen or hydroxyl ion, presence of soluble salt, phosphorous, potassium and organic carbon within the soil.
Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited is the first company to initiate ‘Soil Testing on Wheels’ in eastern India. Since inception of Matix in September 2021, this program has empowered farmers through analysis of 6000+ soil samples thereby contributing its bit towards countering climate change.
Q. The Economic Survey 2023-24 recommended the integration of Agri Stack to ensure targeted distribution of fertilizers based on land and crop data. Is Matix collaborating with the government or other stakeholders to leverage such technologies for precision distribution and reducing fertilizer misuse?
The Indian government, through its Digital India programme, aims to make India a digitally empowered society and ensure availability of all government related services through digital platforms to all its citizens.
Agri-stack initiative was first introduced as part of India’s Digital Agricultural Mission (DAM) in the year 2021. Agri stack is one of a forward-looking initiative of Government of India which has the potential to bring the entire ecosystem together. The epicentre of this shall remain farmers who will be the ultimate beneficiary of this platform.
By leveraging digital public infrastructure (DPI), the Agri Stack has created a comprehensive, unified platform that addresses the systemic inefficiencies and ushers in a new era of data-driven agricultural development.
With data-centricity at its core, businesses, these days, are leveraging data to offer customized experiences, improvise decision-making, and innovate new business models.
Like other sectors who are depending on data for decision making and predictions, by using this platform, the agriculture sector also aims at collecting and organizing significant information related to farmers, their land, and crops into a centralized platform. This is an initiative of Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The platform will help in collecting and storing critical information, including but not limited to, farmers’ demographics, information regarding the land, quality of soil, land ownership, cropping patterns, and production details, geospatial data, data collected through regular monitoring of crop health, acreage, and yields, etc.
Larger benefit to the farmers identified through the platform are –
Ensuring effective and prompt delivery of government benefits/schemes
Quick and accurate identification & authentication of the farmers thereby bringing down the cost of agriculture credit, finance and inputs
Accelerated innovation in products & services by agri-techs with easier access to high-quality data
For organizations like Matix, it is certainly an opportunity to understand the pain of farmers who are the end-consumers of fertilisers leveraging the farmer registry, geo-referenced village maps and crop sown registry. Matix has always been forthcoming in aligning with all government driven initiatives and exploring opportunities for streamlining operations and drive efficiency.
Integrating platforms and solutions used at Matix with Agri Stack will help in expediting the assistance to farmers and improve the quality of services rendered. At Matix, we are exploring this enthusiastically and are in process of finding best use cases to utilise the platform for ensuring facilitation of appropriate fertilisers, minimize waste, and optimize yield.
Q. DAP availability has been a recurring issue due to import dependencies and global price volatility in the current Rabi season. How is Matix managing supply chain challenges to ensure consistent availability of DAP in the Indian market? What measures can be taken to reduce dependency on imports while maintaining quality and supply?
DAP availability is indeed a critical issue, particularly in the current Rabi season. This stems from our heavy reliance on imports and price fluctuations globally. While the major product of Matix is Urea, we do import DAP whenever our channel has demanded it. We have so far brought three small cargoes of DAP for distribution through our channel to farmers. Currently, imports account for almost 60% of the DAP requirement in India. Considering that the nation needs 10 million tonnes of DAP every year, to achieve self-sufficiency in DAP production, an increased investment in domestic infrastructure and technology is a necessity.
The production and import of DAP in the country is governed by various factors like international prices, forex, MRP, subsidy applicable etc. Matix is importing DAP and other P&K fertilizers based on commercial viability. To reduce dependency on imported DAP, Matix is promoting sales of SSP to meet the demand of Phosphatic fertilisers in the market.
Q. The current point-of-sale (PoS) system allows fertilizer purchases by anyone with Aadhaar, often leading to misuse and overuse. In light of these concerns, what measures do you suggest to ensure fertilizers reach only genuine farmers and are used efficiently? How can the industry support policy changes to address these issues?
To ensure the use of subsidized fertilisers by genuine farmers, the ownership documents of farmland, tenancy documents etc. has to be uploaded in the system by the state government. This system is governed by Indian government and industry has been representing the related issues through Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) at appropriate platforms. However, to minimize the overuse, Matix has been regularly educating the farmers on importance of soil sample analysis for balance use of fertilizers through farmers meetings.
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