Agriculture: The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), which is the country’s largest fertiliser seller, has increased the prices of fertilisers and nutrients by 45-58 percent. A 50 kg bag of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), the most common fertiliser in India after urea, will cost farmers INR 1,900 per bag, which is 58 percent more than the current rate of INR 1,200 per bag.
IFFCO has also increased the maximum retail prices of other popular complex fertilisers with different nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and sulphur (NPKS) proportions. The new prices are effective April 1st, 2021.
The hikes are mainly due to a sharp surge in international prices in the last six months. The landed price of imported DAP in India is now at USD 540 per tonne, as against USD 400 in October 2020. Similarly, the prices of intermediates such as ammonia and sulphur have also gone up from around USD 280 and USD 85 per tonne to USD 500 and USD 220 per tonne, respectively.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s Food Price Index (FPI) number—a measure of the monthly change in international prices for a basket of food commodities (such as cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat, sugar, and so on)—at 118.5 points for March 2021, is the highest its been since June 2014, when it was 119.3 points. Interestingly, the FPI had touched a four-year-low of 91 points in May 2020 at the height of global pandemic-induced lockdown, before rebounding to an 81-month-high now.
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