The State units of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) have protested against the sudden increase in the prices of chemical fertilizers in the country.
In separate statements issued here on Sunday, CPI State secretary Pannian Ravindran and RSP State secretary A.A. Azeez said the Union government, on the one hand, had slashed fertilizer subsidies and, on the other, had allowed multinational fertilizer companies to decide the prices of their products.
Severe crisis
The farm sector in the country was already in a severe crisis, due to high costs of fertilizers and low prices of farm produce. Thousands of debt-ridden farmers had committed suicide. The latest increase in fertilizer prices would put the farmers in further misery, they said. The prices of all fertilizers, except urea, had gone up by 30 to 60 per cent, they noted, urging the State government to take immediate steps to ensure the supply of fertilizers at reasonable prices to the farmers in the State.
According to a Palakkad report, the price of Complex rose to Rs.1,100 from Rs.800 a bag. Diammonia factomfose costs Rs.1,200 a bag against Rs.910 a bag last week. The fertilizers are in short-supply and many farmers in Palakkad could not use it for the first crop of paddy.
Keywords: CPI, RSP, chemical fertilizers, farm crisis, crop season
