In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Bhagwanth Khuba quoted ICAR and said it has informed that trials were conducted at 20 selected locations in selected crops to study the effect of IFFCO Nano-urea (liquid) used as foliar spray. The study indicated that Nano-urea can be used as foliar spray for top-dressing instead of conventional urea, he added.
In addition, foliar application of Nano urea along with basal application of recommended dose of conventional urea has yield advantage of 3-8% over conventional fertilizer application.
“Accordingly, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) has provisionally notified Nano Urea as Nano Nitrogen Fertilizers in Fertilizer Control Order, 1985”, underlined the Minister.
Khuba said ICAR has informed that IFFCO and CIL have developed Nano DAP and have conducted preliminary field trials on selected crops in selected ICAR Institutes/SAU’s. The report indicated that with the use of Nano DAP as seed treatment and foliar application, there is a possibility of saving of granular DAP conventionally applied.
Accordingly, Government of India has also notified Nano DAP under the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) – 1985 on the basis of the bio efficacy trials and toxicology tests and M/s Coromandel International Limited (CIL) and M/s Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) have been granted permission to manufacture Nano DAP, he stated in the House.
Minister clarified that the Government of India is not directly involved in setting up of Nano Urea Plants. However, three Nano Urea plants at Kalol, Phulpur and Aonla with capacity of 17 crore bottles have been set up by IFFCO.
“Further, IFFCO has started commercial production of DAP from 8th March, 2023 at its Kalol plant and will commission two more plants at Kandla and Paradeep. Moreover, Coromondal International Limited (CIL) has also established state-of-the-art Nano DAP production facility in Andhra Pradesh with manufacturing capacity of 4 crore bottles (1 litre each) per year”, concluded the Minister.