India’s crop advisory body moots bringing urea under NBS to curb imbalanced use of nutrients

The Committee on Agricultural Costs and Prices, a crop advisory body, recommended that the government take steps to place urea under a nutrient-based support system (NBS) to address the problem of unbalanced use of the nutrient.

In the non-price policy recommendations for fall crops for the 2023-2024 season, the crop advisory body recommended that the government set a cap on the number of subsidized fertilizer bags per farmer as has been done for subsidized LPG cylinders, which would reduce the burden of government subsidies, and free up resources for investment. In research and development in the field of agriculture and infrastructure development.

CACP noted that fertilizer response and efficiency have been declining consistently over decades due to unbalanced nutrient use, micro and secondary nutrient deficiencies, and soil organic carbon depletion, while fertilizer subsidies are on the rise. Hence, it proposed measures to control the unbalanced use of fertilizers, with the recommendation for a 5-10 percent increase in the minimum support price for the 2023-24 fall crops, which was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday.

Reducing edible oil imports

Moreover, CACP also recommended that farmers should be encouraged to increase production of oilseeds and protect them from uncontrolled imports through a dynamic tariff structure linked to global prices, supply and demand situation and domestic prices of edible oils linked to MSP for oilseeds. “Since imports of refined edible oils have increased in recent years and have negatively affected the local refining industry, the committee further recommends raising the duty differential between crude oil and refined oil to about 10-15 percent to discourage the import of refined oils,” said CACP. Also, to reduce dependence on imports, CACP recommended that the National Edible Oils Mission (NMEO) should be launched with a special focus on key oilseeds such as rapeseed, mustard, soybean, soybean and sunflower seed.

Also, in a bid to boost millet production and consumption, the Crop Advisory Board recommended a two-pronged strategy to address supply and demand side challenges. It recommended increasing millet production through genetic improvement, strengthening the seed chain, improving farming practices and increasing shelf life through value addition, while creating demand through including millet in public distribution system and other welfare schemes, and industrial use of millet. Exploiting export market opportunities.