Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially inaugurated the country’s first liquid nano urea plant at Kalol.
- Kalol plant has been set up by Indian Farmers’ Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) with an investment of Rs 175 crore.
- Presently, the plant has the capacity to produce 1/5 lakh bottles of 500ml capacity of nano urea per day, which may further be raised.
Salient features of Nano urea
- Nano urea is essentially urea in the form of a nanoparticle. Urea is a chemical nitrogen fertiliser, white in colour, which artificially provides nitrogen, a major nutrient required by plants.
- The liquid nano urea produced by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) Limited comes in a half-litre bottle priced at Rs 240, and carries no burden of subsidy currently. By contrast, a farmer pays around Rs 300 for a 50-kg bag of heavily subsidised urea.
- A small bottle with 500 ml of nano urea is equivalent to one 50 kg bag of granular urea being currently used by farmers. This will bring substantially down the logistic cost of urea.
- Eight more such nano urea plants will be set up across the country.
- India has become the first country globally to start commercial production of Nano Urea.
- Apart from reducing the country’s subsidy bill, it is aimed at reducing the unbalanced and indiscriminate use of conventional urea, increase crop productivity, and reduce soil, water, and air pollution.
- While conventional urea has an efficiency of about 25 per cent, the efficiency of liquid nano urea can be as high as 85-90 per cent. Conventional urea fails to have the desired impact on crops as it is often applied incorrectly, and the nitrogen in it is vaporised or lost as gas. A lot of nitrogen is also washed away during irrigation.
- Liquid nano urea is sprayed directly on the leaves and gets absorbed by the plant.
- Fertilisers in nano form provide a targeted supply of nutrients to crops, as they are absorbed by the stomata, pores found on the epidermis of leaves.
- Liquid nano urea has a shelf life of a year, and farmers need not be worried about “caking” when it comes in contact with moisture.
- Liquid nano urea contains 4 per cent total nitrogen (w/v) evenly dispersed in water. The size of a nano nitrogen particle varies from 20-50 nm. (A nanometre is equal to a billionth of a metre.).
Nano urea production in India
- While, India is the second largest consumer of urea across the world, it remains the third largest producer of urea, forcing the country to import a large quantity of the same to cater to the needs of farmers. Hence, the government has decided to restart five shut factories in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Telangana with a view to make the nation self-reliant in urea.
- Factories in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana have become operational, while remaining three will start soon.
- The consistent supply of nano urea will result in faster adoption and would also result in more savings to farmers and government subsidies.
- Under these agreements, IFFCO transfers the technology of Liquid Nano Urea to NFL and RCF to establish new Nano Urea production plants to increase the supply of Nano Urea to farmers of the country.
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