The Centre has allowed IFFCO and Coromandel International to start production of nano-DAP for three years with each having certain specifications, including common parameters. As the price of nano-DAP is likely to be cheaper than conventional DAP, it may help the government to reduce its subsidy, which already exceeded ₹2.07 lakh crore until January FY23.

IFFCO’s Managing Director U S Awasthi earlier said at an event of Rural Voice portal that nano-DAP would be available from the 2023 kharif season at ₹600 per 500 ml bottle (without subsidy), which is equivalent to a conventional 50 kg bag of DAP currently sold at ₹1,350/bag (with subsidy).

According to official data, sales of DAP have increased 15.8 per cent to 97.3 lakh tonnes (lt) during April-January of current fiscal from the corresponding period last year. This also resulted in 50 per cent jump in import to 63.8 lt and 4 per cent growth in domestic production at 35.71 lt.

Though 31 per cent of ₹2.07 lakh crore of fertiliser subsidy has gone for phosphorous (P) and potash (K) fertilisers as the urea sector has received a maximum ₹1.42 lakh crore, the share of phosphorous is maximum in the ₹65,000 crore subsidy of P & K nutrients as sales of potash is one-seventh of phosphorous this year. Also, the subsidy on P was ₹66.93/kg, compared with ₹23.65/kg for K during rabi 2022-23 season.

Gazette notification

In a gazette notification on March 2, the Agriculture Ministry said that Nano Di Ammonium Phosphate Fertilizer (liquid) is allowed to be manufactured by both companies in India for three years from the date of notification. The Central Fertilizer Committee (CFC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is believed to have approved it in December last year.

“Another big achievement towards self-sufficiency in fertilizers! After Nano Urea, the Government has now approved Nano DAP. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, this success is going to give immense benefits to the farmers. Now a bag of DAP will also be available in the form of a bottle of DAP,” fertiliser minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted Saturday.

There is a typo in Coromandel’s spelling in the notification, which will be corrected later and the company can start production even now, sources said. The minister has shared a picture of nano-DAP bottle of IFFCO.

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