In an interesting analysis offered by experts it is becoming clear that lack of clear-cut policy on Urea proved nemesis for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
Mayawati’s loss was triggered by dwindling of only about 3.75 percentage of votes. Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar of Swamonomics fame theorizes that this loss of vote was due to urea anger.
In the rabi season farmers were a highly frustrated lot due to unavailability of the urea in the state. Queuing up for hours together for urea they often returned empty-handed.The Centre’s inability to come up with a clear-cut urea policy led to wide-spread shortage of the urea in the state driving the farmers furious with the local government.
Of the two nutrients based fertilizers Phosphorous-Potassium and nitrogen based Urea, the former has been decontrolled by the government while the latter is still being subsidized.This has led to soaring price for P & K while rate of urea is still under govt control.
Farmers have moved towards cheap urea even if their soil require phosphorous and potassium nutrients leading to shortage and black-marketing of the urea.
This was something Mayawati could not control and conceded defeat in Uttar Pradesh. Urea is majorly produced in cooperative sector with Iffco alone accounting for 25 percent of productions. Kribhco is another major player. Government policy has discouraged commissioning of any fertilizer plant for last 10 years as it increasingly depend on imports.
Government subsidy has already touched roof at Rs 70000 crore. If the UPA government does not heed,Urea may sink it too in 2014 general elections,warn experts.