About New Investment Policy (NIP) on Urea 

• The NIP for Urea was announced by the Government of India in 2012 to increase domestic urea production capacity and reduce dependence on urea imports.
• The policy aims to revive old urea plants and promote investment in new plants to meet the growing demand for urea.
• The NIP focuses on improving fertilizer availability, and ensuring self-sufficiency in urea production.

Urea Pricing after NIP

• The pricing of urea is controlled by the government, and the subsidy mechanism ensures affordable pricing for farmers.
• The government provides subsidies to urea manufacturers to bridge the gap between the cost of production and the retail price, which is kept constant at ₹5,360 per ton (as of 2023) for farmers.

PYQ:

[2020] With reference to chemical fertilizers in India, consider the following statements:

1. At present, the retail price of chemical fertilizers is market-driven and not administered by the Government.

2. Ammonia, which is an input of urea, is produced from natural gas.

3. Sulphur, which is a raw material for phosphoric acid fertilizer, is a by-product of oil refineries.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 2 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3