{"id":250365,"date":"2023-07-01T20:47:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=250365"},"modified":"2023-08-31T14:56:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T09:26:56","slug":"on-urea-prices-fertiliser-for-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/on-urea-prices-fertiliser-for-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"On urea prices: Fertiliser for thought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source-<\/strong> The post is based on the article \u201con urea prices: Fertiliser for thought\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 23rd June 2023.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Indian Agriculture \u2013 Agricultural Inputs<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet approved the continuation of the urea subsidy scheme with a view to ensure supply of the fertiliser at the same price. Government has committed a total amount of Rs 3,68,676.7 crore over three years till 2024-25.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about urea sales and pricing in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Urea sales in India crossed a record 35.7 million tonnes during 2022-23. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The maximum retail price of urea has remained unchanged at Rs 5,360 per tonne<\/strong> during the last nine years.<\/p>\n

What are issues with use of fertilisers in the agriculture sector in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The present government\u2019s initiatives such as compulsory neem coating, reducing the bag size<\/strong> from 50 kg to 45 kg, and launch of the Nano Urea<\/strong> have not brought down the consumption of the urea.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Urea retails at a fifth or even less<\/strong> than that of most other fertilisers. It does not incentivise farmers <\/strong>to cut back on its use.<\/p>\n

The disproportionate application of N<\/strong> has, over time, resulted in diminishing crop yield response.<\/strong> Studies have shown that 1 kg of N, P and K used to yield 12 kg-plus of cereal grains <\/strong>during the 1960s. But now it yields only a 5 kg surplus now<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward for the fertiliser sector?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Modi government has proposed the introduction of sulphur-coated urea<\/strong>. It would be more economical and efficient than fertiliser. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of using urea as a carrier product<\/strong> for delivering sulphur to crops isn\u2019t bad. The government should allow urea, di-ammonium phosphate and other commodity fertilisers <\/strong>to be freely coated with all secondary and micronutrients. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Further, the MRPs of such fortified fertiliser<\/strong>s must be set free. If the yield benefits<\/strong> from applying sulphur or zinc-coated urea<\/strong> are significantly more from ordinary urea, the farmer will be paying extra.<\/p>\n

It could also pave the way for the price decontrol of urea<\/strong> and bringing it under the nutrient-based subsidy regime.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source- The post is based on the article \u201con urea prices: Fertiliser for thought\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 23rd June 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Indian Agriculture \u2013 Agricultural Inputs News– On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet approved the continuation of the urea subsidy scheme with a view to ensure supply of the fertiliser at the same… Continue reading On urea prices: Fertiliser for thought<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[218,216,10498],"class_list":["post-250365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-agriculture","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700801864,"cached_date":1703200724},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}