The State Development and Reform Commission since March has ordered local governments to curb the rising prices of fertilizers to ease the burdens on farmers.

Figures show that all kinds of agricultural materials including fertilizers and farm-use diesel oil became more expensive this year, and experts believe this will offset farmers' recent income increase due to the grain price rise.

By mid-March, the retail price for carbamide reached 1,645 yuan (US$198) per ton, up 2.9 percent from the previous month and over 13 percent year on year, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.

The price of imported diammonium orthophosphate, a kind of important fertilizer, stood at 2,484 yuan per ton in mid-March, up 8.9 percent from the previous month and over 20 percent year on year.

Now in east Jiangxi province, the maximum price of carbamide is set at 1,620 yuan per ton. The profit rate for fertilizer wholesale enterprises cannot exceed 3 percent in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, 4 percent in central China's Henan Province, and 2 percent in central China's Hunan Province.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2004)