The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) is in favour of capping the number of subsidised urea bags supplied to farmers based on their farm size to curb the overuse of nutrient. The crop advisory body has also called for promoting and diversifying the pulses production in the country.

It also called for formulating a policy for sale of pulses procured under the price support scheme (PSS) and suggested that it should not be sold below the minimum support price (MSP).

In its non-price recommendations for the rabi marketing season 2024-25, the CACP has recommended that a suitable cap may be imposed on the number of subsidised urea bags supplied to farmers depending on the size of the farm so that excessive usage of urea and imbalance in use of nutrients can be controlled.

Observing that fertilizer use in India is highly unbalanced, CACP said the over-use of fertilizers with over 200 kg/ha in about 25 per cent of districts is causing serious environmental degradation, while about 17 per cent districts have low consumption of less than 50 kg/ha, affecting productivity. In addition, there is an imbalance in the ratio of nutrients. The Commission recommends that special awareness campaigns should be launched to educate farmers about balanced use of fertilizers and reduce fertilizer consumption in high-use districts and promote fertilizer use in low-use areas, it said.

“States should make concerted efforts to promote and popularise use of nano fertilizers through campaigns and field level demonstrations, which will help in containing fertilizer subsidy,” it said.

Promoting pulses

Further, the CACP noted that the production of pulses is concentrated in a few States and districts in the country and is prone to high fluctuations due to biotic and abiotic stresses. It recommended that concerted efforts were needed for expanding area under pulses particularly lentil, arhar/tur and urad in more districts and in rice-fallows available in eastern and southern States as well as promoting summer cultivation of urad and moong in areas with assured irrigation facilities.

Further, the sale of pulses procured under Price Support Scheme (PSS) in open market below the MSP depresses market prices. The Commission recommends that policy for disposal of pulses procured under the PSS should be formulated and should not be sold below the MSP. The distribution of pulses to households in the aspirational districts would help in improving nutrition in these areas as well as disposal of stocks without affecting the market prices, the CACP observed.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW