Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India needs to ensure supply chain resilience in fertilisers, insecticides, and pesticides to insulate the country against supply shocks. China recently halted shipments of speciality fertilisers used to increase yields of fruits, vegetables and other profitable crops. “How will our supply chain become self-sufficient and self-reliant? How will our supply chain become safe [so that] we are not stuck when a country stops supply of fertiliser..
We cannot suddenly be in trouble. We have to ensure supply chain resilience in fertiliser, insecticide, pesticide …,”Goyal said at an industry event organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. He did not directly mention China. India’s agriculture and fisheries exports have now reached ₹4.5 lakh crore, the Minister said. He added that agricultural exports have the potential to grow to ₹20 lakh crore, provided the country strengthens food processing and improves the quality of branding and packaging.
The Minister said the government had not allowed fertiliser costs to increase, and it will ensure they do not increase going forward as well. “The government provides crores in subsidies to protect farmers by keeping fertiliser costs down,” he said. Goyal observed that India was still a rain-fed agrarian economy, and they did not know the impact of climate change on agriculture. “Drip irrigation is a good way to tackle this. We have to make irrigation an economically viable option for farmers. And not depend on government subsidies,” he said.
