India has enough land, water and sunshine for growing crops. But that’s not the case with fertilisers, where it is overwhelmingly import-dependent. In 2025-26, the country’s imports of fertiliser inputs and products were valued at about $27.2 billion. 3 min read May 30, 2026 06:40 AM IST First published on: May 30, 2026 at 06:40 AM IST Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants Indian farmers to cut consumption of chemical fertilisers by 25-50 per cent, in order to conserve precious foreign exchange as well as protect the long-term fertility of Indian soils. However, the governments in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are doing the opposite. All three — many more may follow — have decreed that manufacturers and suppliers of subsidised fertilisers such as urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) cannot sell nutrient products where no government subsidy or price controls are in place. In other words, fertiliser companies can sell only those products whose usage is being discouraged by the Modi government.…