A quiet field in Tarawadi, Karnal district, Haryana, became a test bed for a potential shift in how India feeds its crops — and cuts its fertiliser import bill. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited the site on Friday, 23 October 2026, during the ongoing Khet Bachao Abhiyan campaign, to witness a live demonstration by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) of green ammonia being injected directly into the soil.

What the ICAR machine actually does

The technology is deceptively simple in principle: a specialised machine drives green ammonia sub-surface into the soil, delivering nitrogen precisely where a crop's roots can absorb it. Chouhan described the process in his post — 'vishesh machine se ise mitti ke bheetar pahunchaya jata hai, taki fasal ko nitrogen mil sake' ('a special machine delivers it into the soil so the crop receives nitrogen'). The targeted application means less fertiliser is wasted to surface run-off or volatilisation, promising better yields at lower input volumes.

Why India's fertiliser import bill makes this urgent

India's dependence on imported urea and other nitrogenous fertilisers is one of agriculture's most persistent pressure points. Global price spikes — most dramatically during the 2021-22 commodity surge — exposed how badly that dependence can hurt both the national subsidy budget and individual farm economics. Chouhan noted the twin goals explicitly: reduce farmers' costs, and shrink India's reliance on foreign sources for fertiliser inputs.

The green ammonia trial slots directly into that larger ambition. India's National Green Hydrogen Mission, launched in January 2023, set out to scale domestic production of green hydrogen and its derivatives — ammonia chief among them — precisely to decarbonise energy-intensive sectors, including fertiliser manufacturing. An ICAR-led field demonstration in a wheat-belt district like Karnal is an early signal that the mission's outputs are now reaching farm gates.

Khet Bachao Abhiyan and the push for sustainable inputs

The Khet Bachao Abhiyan — literally 'Save the Farm Campaign' — has been the Agriculture Ministry's platform for rolling out field-level demonstrations of sustainable farming practices to farmers. Haryana, one of India's highest per-hectare fertiliser-consuming states, is a strategically logical starting point: if green ammonia can prove cost-competitive on a Haryana wheat or paddy field, scale-up arguments become harder to dismiss.

The broader pattern here is deliberate. Successive governments have backed alternative nutrient-delivery systems and domestic green production as a hedge against subsidy overruns and import vulnerability. What changes with green ammonia is the decarbonisation dimension: lower emissions from fertiliser use, not just lower costs, is now part of the pitch to farmers.

What farmers and policymakers will be watching

The demonstration is a pilot. The next questions — how quickly ICAR can scale the specialised machinery, whether state governments adopt procurement or subsidy programmes for green ammonia inputs, and what measurable cost savings farmers actually record — will determine whether Tarawadi is a footnote or a turning point. Chouhan's high-profile field visit signals that the Ministry is prepared to put political weight behind the answer.

India's farm sector employs roughly half the country's workforce. Any input that credibly cuts costs while reducing import exposure carries stakes well beyond a single field in Karnal.