The research leading to this paper was undertaken at ICRIER as a part of the project “Supporting Indian Farms the Smart Way: Rationalising Subsidies and Investments for Faster, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”. The project is supported by Syngenta Foundation to which we are grateful. The authors would also like to acknowledge their gratitude to J.K Mohapatra, ex-Secretary Chemicals and Fertilizer Department (now Secretary, Rural Development in GoI); Satish Chander, Director General, FAI; and Vijay Kelkar, exSecretary, Finance and ex-Adviser to the Finance Minister, ex-Chairman of the Finance Commission and a well known authority on gas pricing, with whom we had intensive discussions on the subject. We also got valuable comments and suggestions from various participants during the Policy Workshop on “Fertilizer Subsidy and Credit Subsidy” held at India Habitat Centre in early 2015.
Our special thanks are also due to Prof. Anwarul Hoda, Chair Professor of ICRIER’s Trade Policy and WTO Research Programme, Dr. Marco Ferroni, Dr. Yuan Zhou, and Baskar Reddy, of Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture for their detailed and very useful comments. Needless to say, the authors are fully responsible for the analysis carried and views expressed in the paper.
