New Delhi, March 18 -- On 7 January, Mint made a case for reforming India's highly inefficient regime of fertilizer production, pricing and distribution, and for switching over from product subsidization to income support for farmers.

This imperative has since been sprung centre-stage by a war in West Asia that has disrupted our imports of urea and its feedstock gas, both of which form large shares of domestic usage and have seen global prices flare up.

The fiscal burden that this imposes on the government should be enough to trigger action. The longer we retain the status quo, the worse this war's likely impact will be through inflated import bills, which look poised to enlarge rapidly if peace proves elusive.

In general, India privil...