-The Economic Times Decontrol of urea is likely to affect agricultural production adversely for several reasons. First, it will immediately push up prices of all nitrogenous fertilisers and reduce their usage, thereby lowering crop yields. Second, it may also lead to increase in the prices of DAP and other mixed fertilisers due to shift in demand in their favour. Urea decontrol may not result in more balanced use of N, P and...
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Urea price decontrol will raise yields: U S Awasthi, Managing Director, IFFCO
-The Economic Times Fertiliser will continue to be a key input in the crop production system as there are no alternatives to meet nutritional requirement of crops. Post-Independence, a substantial increase in indigenous production and consumption of urea and a range of P and K fertilisers made the country self-reliant both in fertiliser and food grain production. But farm production is stagnant though fertiliser use has been rising. The bone of...
More »Offset ban on cotton export by raising floor price by 10%: CACP-Nidhi Nath Srinivas
The government should immediately announce a 10% increase in the floor price of cotton and rice to protect farmer incomes if it imposes a ban on the export of these commodities, India's two most economically significant cash crops, according to the Commission of Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), a body which advises the government on the pricing policy for major farm produce. "Any ban on export is an implicit tax on...
More »Waiting for Aadhaar
-The Business Standard The transition to direct fertiliser subsidy will not be easy The road map for direct transfer of fertiliser subsidy to farmers that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee outlined in the Budget has come under a cloud even before it is rolled out. Most in the fertiliser sector – including, notably, the fertiliser ministry and fertiliser dealers – are wary of trying it out, for fear that it might create more...
More »Abolish the Poverty Line by N Krishnaji
There is no case whatsoever to construct a single poverty line based on a calorie or expenditure norm; all such lines are arbitrary and do not take into account the different dimensions of poverty. It is far better to focus on disaggregated information on a variety of parameters – education, housing, clothing, health, etc – which can give us unambiguous information about the different facets of poverty over the course...
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