Fertiliser stocks gain as cabinet approves new procurement policy to ensure remunerative prices to farmers

New Delhi: Fertiliser stocks on Friday gained as much as 12 percent after the cabinet approved a Rs 15,053 crore new procurement policy to ensure remunerative prices to farmers. Ahead of the 2019 polls, the government on Wednesday announced a Rs 15,053-crore procurement policy allowing states to choose a compensation scheme and rope in private agencies for procurement to ensure remunerative prices to farmers. Reacting to the development, Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers made handsome gains of 11.96 percent and 9.15 percent, respectively, on the BSE. [caption id=“attachment_4996591” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Shares of National Fertilizer surged 4.81 percent and Rama Phosphates settled over 3.25 percent higher. Coromandel International gained 2.41 percent while Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals and Basant Agro Tech India jumped 2.17 percent and 1.71 percent, respectively. Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers also rose marginally by 0.66 percent. The new umbrella policy ‘Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan’ (PM-AASHA) was approved in the cabinet meeting, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the budget this year, the government had announced that it will put in place a fool-proof mechanism to ensure minimum support price (MSP) to farmers. It had asked think-tank Niti Aayog to suggest a mechanism in consultation with the Agriculture Ministry and states. Under the PM-AASHA, states would be allowed to choose from three schemes – existing Price Support Scheme (PSS), newly designed Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS) and Pilot of Private Procurement Stockist Scheme (PPSS) – to undertake procurement when prices of commodities fall below the MSP level.