The Modi Regime’s policy of succumbing to US Imperialism has damaged India’s energy, fuel and fertiliser security. Inadequate Fertiliser stocks will lead to diminished harvest yields, food inflation and escalate rural economic distress.

Farmers across the country are facing a sharp surge in market prices for fertilisers. The current retail price of Muriate of Potash (MOP) has been hiked to the range of Rs 1,800- 2,000 compared to Rs 1,500 in the last season reflecting a surge of 20% to 33% per bag in major agricultural hubs like Kuttanad, Kottayam and Palakkad in Kerala. The price of Factomfos (NPK 20:20:0:13) per bag has been increased to Rs 1,750–1,900 compared to Rs 1,425 in the last season, a surge of 22% to 33%. Farmers unable to afford these illegal price markups are skipping essential base applications. Agriculture experts warn that this inadequate fertilisation will lead to diminished harvest yields, escalating rural economic distress and food inflation.

The price hike is primarily driven by shipping and logistical disruptions in West Asia, which have severely impacted raw material imports to local manufacturers. Because global input costs have nearly doubled, private manufacturing firms have passed on the doubled cost of imported ammonia and raw sulphur to retail dealers. Large traders and private dealers have engaged in artificial hoarding, forcing farmers to buy fertilisers at inflated black-market rates. Farmers in several major agricultural states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana are facing severe scarcity, indirect price hikes and illegal overcharging.

While official prices are unchanged on paper, local media outlets report widespread retail malpractice. Instead of initiating stringent actions against hoarders and black marketers, the Modi regime and the state governments are facilitating profiteering for corporate traders and their intermediaries at the farmers' expense. In this year’s budget fertiliser subsidies were slashed by 8.4 percent from last year’s budget estimates.

Despite the Indian government's repeated claims of adequate stocks and no imminent threat, Prime Minister Modi has appealed to farmers to cut their fertiliser usage by 25-50 percent to save foreign exchange. The appeal lacks scientific reasoning and was garbed under the cover of natural farming and protecting soil health. This suffers a trust deficit from the farmers.

India’s foreign policy in the recent past, of siding closer to the United States (US) and kowtowing to the whims of the Trump administration, has damaged India’s energy, fuel and fertiliser security. India’s closeness with the US has isolated it to a certain extent from countries and groups representing the global South, such as BRICS. India gave in to the US’s punitive trade tariffs and reduced its oil purchases from Russia. Latest reports suggest that shipments carrying essential fertiliser supplies through the Strait of Hormuz have also been abandoned by India, in fear of retributive sanctions by the US against any trade with Iran.

The present crisis is yet another reminder of a lack of long-term planning, which puts Indian farmers, already facing an agrarian crisis, at the cusp of huge losses in production and productivity. Under the overall liberalisation policies adopted in 1991, the largely public sector-dominated fertiliser sector was opened for privatisation, followed by the closure of many public sector units. The country and the farming community are paying the price for this crucial policy failure of having adopted neo-liberalism. Due to policies favouring greater privatisation, the fertiliser sector saw no major public investments. In 2001, several plants which ran on fossil fuels were closed on the pretext of high energy consumption. Several other policies, such as joint venture enterprises to open fertiliser plants in foreign countries due to raw material availability, and other reforms like the Nutrient Based Subsidy Scheme introduced in 2010, have failed to attract any substantial investments into the fertiliser industry.

The brewing fertiliser crisis in India, which is very concerning for its farmers as well as the country’s food security, is a product of the central government’s erroneous planning, faulted strategic interventions, as well as following a US-centric foreign policy and Neo-liberal reforms.