India’s Agriculture Sector Round Up 2021: Fight for MSP, Edible Oil Prices & Nano Urea Fertlizer

From determining the MSP for agricultural produce to addressing rising commodity inflation while balancing the needs of end users and farmers, the government has a lot in hand for 2022. In this article we bring to you the Indian Agriculture Round up for 2021 covering all the important happenings of the year.

For the benefit of farmers, the government purchased huge quantities of wheat, rice, pulses, cotton, and oilseeds at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

As production and procurement continued smoothly, the farmers' agitation, which began in November 2020, came to an end this month when Parliament enacted a Bill repealing the three contentious farm laws on the first day of the Winter Session on November 29. In January, the Supreme Court suspended the execution of these laws.

Despite the Pandemic, record production of food grains helped the agriculture sector to maintain its growth rate.

The official also pointed out that the unseasonal rainfall affected perishable and horticulture produce in various sections of the country. As a result, prices of some commodities like tomatoes came under pressure. Despite bumper production of oilseeds crops, the edible oil prices skyrocketed to unprecedented levels on global cues.

Edible Oil Prices:

India meets around 60-65 percent of its domestic demand of edible oils through imports, which reached a record Rs.1.17 lakh crore in the 2020-21 which concluded in October. The price of mustard oil has risen to around Rs.200 per litre, and the price of other cooking oils also went up.

A sharp rise in rabi oilseeds acreage has given hope for a likely fall in cooking oil prices in the New Year.

IFFCO’s Nano Urea Fertilizer:

IFFCO, a cooperative major, has introduced nano-urea in liquid form, which promises to lower India's import and subsidy bill.

"We started commercially producing nano urea and we have so far produced 1.5 crore bottles of nano urea, which helped save Rs.6000 crore of government subsidies," IFFCO MD U S Awasthi said, urging the government to boost the development of such innovative products.

Huge investments were also made in agritech startups that work in areas such as farm advisory, input provision, and marketing assistance, among others, in 2021. Drones and other new technology are being employed in agriculture.

The government has already announced the formation of a committee to address the primary demand of the protesting farmer unions: a legislative guarantee for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime.

Hopefully, an amicable solution on the MSP issue is expected in the New Year.