Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (Iffco) has identified approximately 200 clusters, based on their urea sales, to introduce its nano products and drone spraying initiative. This first phase, starting in the current kharif season, aims to cover a total of 8 lakh acres over the next few years.
The “Nano Fertilizer Usage Promotion Mahaabhiyan” aims to create 200 model nano village/clusters, covering 800 villages, where farmers will receive 25 per cent subsidy on the maximum retail price (MRP) of Nano Urea Plus, Nano DAP, and Sagarika fertilisers, Iffco said in a statement.
Further, it also said the co-operative will bear ₹100 per acre from the costs of the farmers if they hire drone services for spraying crop nutrients and agrochemicals on the field.
Promoting sustainable farming
The government has already launched a 100-day action plan to promote nano-fertilizers and plans to hold 1,270 demos of nano DAP (liquid) in 413 districts and 200 trials of nano urea plus (liquid) in 100 districts.
The move may help the government to reduce sales of chemical fertilizers and promote sustainable agricultural practices as the utlisation of granular urea bags continue to rise despite several measures like neem coated urea, reduction of quantity in each bag and the launch of PM-PRANAM scheme.
While the government claims effectiveness of nano-urea to replace conventional granular bag, many experts do not see the liquid fertilizer as a complete replacement as they said some quantity can be reduced without impacting yield. For instance, farmers can use 3 bags of conventional urea and one bottle of nano-urea (of 500 ml) if they were using 4 bags earlier.
Urea sales recorded at 357.81 lakh tonnes (lt) in FY24, 356.75 lt in FY23 and 338.64 lt in FY22.
IFFCO stated that nano fertilizers can reduce the imbalanced application of conventional fertilizers by up to 50%, while also enhancing crop yield and quality, contributing to residue-free farming. However, there is a need to raise awareness and encourage the adoption of nano fertilizers within the farming community.
Initially, 201 nano villages/clusters have been selected in 21 States for which 2,000 acres have been earmarked for the project activities. Iffco has already appointed co-ordinators in each of the 201 village/cluster to undertake a benchmark survey of the villages and co-ordinate drone spraying as well as distribution of its nano fertilisers.
Meanwhile, the co-operative major has set a target to produce 4 crore nano urea plus and 2 crore nano DAP bottles (of 500 ml each) in 2024-25.