New Delhi: Admitting the fact that nano-fertilizer can be a game changer in India's agriculture sector, a Parliamentary Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers has suggested to the government to transfer nanotechnology to the other fertilizer PSUs and private companies to maximise its production capacity to enable the country not only to meet its own requirement but also be a net exporter.
"Department of fertilizers may encourage research and development of various nano fertilisers by public and private companies and may consider financial assistance in this regard. The department may also consider providing subsidy on nano fertilizers to make them very cheap and attractive to the farmers," the Parliamentary committee headed by Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said in its latest report.
Echoing the same view, agriculture scientist Dr Swapan Debroy told ETV Bharat that nano fertilizer has the potential to become a game changer because it will reduce the cost of farm production due to increased efficacy. It will save a substantial amount of money when applied in the field in liquid formulations, the report further noted.
"Of course, the government can not on its own meet the demand of the huge agricultural farm sector. To meet the demand, the government should give conditional permission to private companies to increase the production of nano fertilisers," said Dr Debroy.
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To provide a comparative outline, one nano urea bottle is equivalent to a 45 kg urea bag. The cost of one 500 ml bottle is Rs 240, whereas that of conventional subsidized urea is Rs 266.5 per 45 kg. As per researchers, the efficacy of nano fertilizer is more than 80 per cent, whereas the efficacy of conventional urea was only 30 to 40 per cent. Nano urea has also the potential to replace conventional urea by 50 per cent.
The Parliamentary committee noted that Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has indefinitely developed nano urea which is a next-generation smart efficient fertiliser which apart from reducing input cost is environmentally safe and beneficial.
Commercial production of IFFCO's nano urea plant in Gujarat's Kalol was started on August 1 last year and 2.40 crore nano urea bottles were manufactured till recently. Officials from the department of Chemical and Fertilizer informed the Parliamentary Committee that nanotechnology has been transferred to two government PSUs namely NFL and RCF and they are also setting up their nano urea plants which will be operational in July 2024 and March 2024 respectively.
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With the commissioning of these plants, the total capacity of production of nano fertiliser will be 44 crore bottles per year which will be equivalent to 44 crore idea bags, around 200 LMT and it has the potential to reduce the import of 90 LMT urea.
The department has informed the committee that six States will have nano urea production unit by 2025. The nano urea production is expected to start at Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh this September and Aonla (UP) from April next year.
It was also informed that nano urea prosecution will also start at Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Trombay (Maharashtra) from March 2024, Nangal (Punjab) from July 2024, Deoghar (Jharkhand) in November 2024 and Assam by November 2025.
