No shortage of fertilisers in the country; no hike in prices: Mandaviya

Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said there is no shortage of crop nutrients in the country and asserted that there will be no hike in the prices of non-urea products.

The minister also said that Nutrient Based Policy (NBS) for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilisers for the Rabi season (October 2022 to March 2023) will be announced shortly.

“There is no shortage of fertilisers in the country,” Mandaviya told reporters on the sidelines of the International Dairy Federation (IDF) World Dairy Summit here.

He was responding to a query about the supply situation for the upcoming Rabi sowing season that would start from October.

On when the government would announce the NBS policy for P&K fertilisers for the Rabi season, he said it will be done shortly after analysing international prices.

“We will not allow any increase in retail prices of DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate) and other non-urea fertilisers,” Mandaviya said, adding that the government would absorb the burden of high global prices.

Earlier, the minister projected that the government’s fertiliser subsidy would be between Rs 2.25-2.5 lakh crore this fiscal as against Rs 1.62 lakh crore in the last financial year.

Mandaviya also said that farmers are increasingly adopting nano liquid urea, which is good for soil health as compared to the conventional urea.

Nano urea has been launched in the country by cooperative major IFFCO.

In July, Mandaviya said that India would not need to import urea by 2025-end as the domestic production of conventional urea and nano liquid urea is expected to be sufficient to meet the country’s annual demand.

At present, the country’s urea (conventional) production is 260 lakh tonnes while around 90 lakh tonnes are imported to meet the local demand.

The government is making available urea and 25 grades of P&K fertilisers to farmers at subsidised prices through fertiliser manufacturers/ importers.

In the case of urea, the Centre fixes the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) and reimburses the difference between MRP and production cost in the form of a subsidy.

MRP of urea is fixed at Rs 267 per bag of 45 kg each.

The subsidy on P&K fertilisers is being governed by NBS scheme with effect from April 1, 2010.

Under the scheme, a fixed rate of subsidy (in Rs per kg basis) is announced for nutrients namely Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P), Potash (K) and Sulphur (S) by the government.

The subsidy rates per kg for the nutrients N, P, K, and S are converted into per tonne subsidies on the various P&K fertilisers covered under NBS.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor