-The Indian Express After petrol and diesel, the Narendra Modi government is looking next to deregulate urea. In the works is a three-year plan to decontrol the maximum retail price (MRP) of this fertiliser - currently fixed at Rs 5,360 a tonne or Rs 268 per 50-kg bag - alongside permitting duty-free imports sans any canalisation or restrictions, and credit the subsidy directly into the bank accounts of farmers. Urea imports now...

-The Hindu Business Line But manufacturers want subsidy regime to end in order to improve production Kolkata: To curb black-marketing in urea, the Centre in December released a "record" 3.7 million tonnes (mt) into the market, by stepping up imports. The usual monthly requirement of the fertiliser, whose supply is regulated, is 2.5-3 mt. The demand for urea peaks towards end December and early January. India produces approximately 22 mt of urea against the...

-The Indian Express In an article in these columns (‘A fertile mess', IE, December 11), Ashok Gulati says India has landed its fertiliser industry in a mess because of rising subsidies, lagging investment, unbalanced use of fertilisers and diversion of urea for other uses, among other things. He blames it all on administered pricing and subsidy costs, and advocates the increase of Urea prices or cash transfer of the fertiliser subsidy...

-The Hindu Business Line   The closure of three urea producing plants in south India has led to a sharp spike in imports and subsidies In April 2014, the UPA government in its last days, cut off the lifeline of three urea plants. It gave a final push to a ten-year-old trend of replacing domestic urea production with imports. The government-owned Madras Fertilisers, and the private sector units SPIC and MCF closed down...

-The Hindu Puducherry (Tamil Nadu): S. Janaki, a farmer, laughs when she says she is unsure of what to do with the extra time that she now has. "Earlier, I used to have back problems because of the tiring labour involved in paddy cultivation. Now, I find working in the field much easier and that it involves lesser time," she adds. Janaki is among a group of 15 farmers in Vinayagampet village...