New Delhi, Feb. 21 -- India is planning to ink a long-term contract with Mauritania for importing rock phosphate, a key fertilizer ingredient, after the Ukraine war and Red Sea crisis hit supplies and pushed up global prices, union chemicals and fertilizers minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in an interview.

India is scouring for steady suppliers of fertilizer with an eye on the union budget presented earlier this month, which allocated a massive Rs.1.64 trillion for fertilizer subsidy. India already has entered into long-term agreements with Morocco, Senegal, Israel, Oman, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in the past two years as part of this playbook.

Though India is moving toward gaining self-sufficiency in urea, it still depends on impo...