Along with Soil Health Card portal Mr Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister also launched web portal for Fertiliser Quality Control System in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Fertilizer Quality Control System (FQCS) is a web based and configurable workflow application developed by NIC for processing of sample collection, testing and generation of analysis reports.
The application can be accessed at the URL http://www.fqcs.dac.gov.in.
Fertilizers play an important role in catalyzing agriculture productivity of the soil. To ensure availability of quality fertilisers to farmers, the fertiliser was declared as an essential commodity in 1957. The Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) has since been revised and re-enacted in the year 1985.
The FCO provides for specification of all fertilizers manufactured or imported and sold in the country; compulsory registration of fertilizer manufacturers, importers and dealers; methods of sampling and analysis of fertilizers; appointment of fertilizer inspectors; establishment of Fertiliser Quality Control Laboratories; and restrictions on the manufacture/import and sale of fertilizers not in conformity with the laid down specifications.
At present, there are 78 notified Fertilizer Quality Control Laboratories (FQCLs) in the country. Out of these, 4 laboratories viz. Central Fertilizer Quality Control & Training Institute (CFQC&TI) and its three Regional Fertilizer Control Laboratories (RFCLs) located at Navi Mumbai, Chennai and Kalyani are under the control of Central Government and the remaining are under the control of different State Governments.
India imports large quantity of various fertilizers to meet the demands. About 25-30% of the requirement of Urea, 90% of the requirement of DAP and 100% of the requirement of MOP are met by imports. The CFQC&TI and its three RFCLs are assigned the responsibility to check the quality of imported fertilizers.
The laboratories of the State Governments check the quality of fertilisers by drawing samples from indigenous sources viz. manufacturing units, retailers/wholesalers, godowns etc.