Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said nano-urea and nano-DAP can guarantee the same level of production as conventional fertilisers. He appealed to farmers to shun the conventional bag of fertilisers if they are using the liquid alternatives, a recent innovations by IFFCO. Soil conservation, higher crop yield, easy transportation, apart from helping the government to cut the subsidy costs are some of the benefits of the liquid fertilisers have been projected to deliver.

Commercially rolling out world’s first nano-DAP, approved by the government in March, Shah said it (introduction of nano variant of fertiliser) is a new beginning towards making India self reliant on fertiliser as it will increase farm productivity without impacting the soil health.

Though a bottle (500 ml) of nano-DAP will be equivalent to one bag (50kg) of conventional DAP, the price of nano (liquid) DAP has been kept at ₹600 per bottle (without subsidy) against ₹1,350/ bag (with subsidy) for conventional DAP.

Shah said as the health of crores of Indians was becoming a threat due to the overuse of chemical fertilizers, the soil can be prevented from chemical pollution by spraying liquid DAP on the plant.

Restore soil health

“With the application of nano-DAP, both quality and quantity of the crop will increase. It will be a great help to restore the soil health, which has been degraded over the years. Farmers, who want to shift to natural farming can do it without affecting their income if they start using nano-DAP as the liquid crop nutrient will least damage the soil and help grow earth worms in the soil,” Shah said.

The minister said IFFCO’s nano-DAP will have 8 per cent nitrogen and 16 per cent phosphorus against 18 per cent nitrogen and 46 per cent phosphorus than the conventional granular bag contains.

Shah urged farmers to shun using granular DAP as it has been scientifically proved that one bottle of nano-DAP is equivalent to one conventional bag of 50 kg. He said farmers are always the first ones in quick adoption of any new technology and this time too they will start using the revolutionary liquid fertiliser. Extensive usage of these farm inputs will make India ‘Atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) in fertiliser and reduce import dependence, he added.

Commenting on the possibilities of reducing cost of production, Shah said nano-DAP can help farmers save 6 per cent on wheat and 20 per cent each in case of potato and sugarcane.

Patent for IFFCO

Highlighting that IFFCO alone produces 9 million tonnes (mt) of fertilisers annually out of 13.2 mt by all plants in cooperative sector and 38.4 mt by all (cooperatives, private and PSUs), Shah exhorted the Board of Directors to think beyond fertiliser and expand to other areas, replicating the success they have achieved in fertiliser.

The minister said IFFCO has got a patent for nano-urea and nano-DAP for 20 years and will get a royalty of 20 per cent for the use of the products globally.

In a statement, IFFCO said it has set up manufacturing facilities for the production of nano DAP fertilisers at Kalol, Kandla in Gujarat and Paradeep in Odisha. The production at Kalol Plant has already started, and this year about 5 crore bottles of nano-DAP (equivalent to 2.5 mt) will be produced.

It is estimated that the production of 18 crore bottles of nano-DAP by IFFCO till 2025-26 will replace 9 mt of conventional granular DAP.

IFFCO’s MD US Awasthi said the nano DAP has been found to be very effective in enhancing the nutritional quality and productivity of crop and has a huge positive impact on the environment thus resulting in significant reduction in global warming.