Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar flagged off IFFCO’s Nano Urea truck to the farmers in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. Tomar did so virtually, adds a press release from the co-op titan IFFCO
The truck containing 75 tonnes of equivalent urea was dispatched to Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh from the Kalol plant in Gujarat. In the virtual flag off event, Besides IFFCO Chairman B S Nakai and MD Dr U S Awasthi, its Vice Chairman Dileep Sanghani, Joint MD Rakesh Kapur and others were also present.
The Union Minister later tweeted in Hindi “ Flagged off IFFCO Nano Urea truck virtually from Kalol, Gujarat for the farmers of Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking on the occasion the Minister said, “I am happy to learn that IFFCO has developed this innovative product adhering to ‘Make in India’ process. It will not only help increase the income of farmers but will also help reduce use of chemical fertilizers which in turn will help improve our environment and the planet”.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr U S Awasthi Managing Director IFFCO said that through this product IFFCO is contributing towards Aatmnirbhar Bharat and Aatmnirbhar Krishi and said that the product is now available across the country.
“Half a litre of Nano Urea bottle gives equal or better results compared to a bag of urea from the effectiveness perspective on crops. Because of its small size it is very convenient to be used by farmers in difficult terrains,” he said.
The Nano Urea production plants are also coming up in Brazil, Argentina and a few more countries as part of the International Cooperative Alliance, Dr Awasthi said.
A press release sent by IFFCO to Indian Cooperative reads, Nano Urea has been tested on many crops and results showed that Nano Urea is very useful in increasing yield and also nutritional quality of the crops. It also helps reduce water and environment pollution thereby making the planet safer for humans and other living beings.
IFFCO had earlier dispatched Nano Urea shipments to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The stocks were sold within half an hour.
IFFCO is already in the process of construction of its plants at its Kalol unit in Gujarat and also at Aonla and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh in Phase- I by year 2021-22. The total annual production capacity would be initially 14 crore bottles of 500 ml, which will further be raised to 18 Crore.
The use of Nano Urea will help increase farmers’ income, reduce input cost and enhance the quality of yield besides reducing the use of chemical fertilizers.
The Kalol plant is dispatching one truck with 15000 bottles of Nano Urea per day and soon the plant would dispatch 10 trucks every day. Kalol plant is producing 6750 tonne equivalent of urea per day, which would result in saving Rs 35,000 crore of Government’s subsidy burden and would also help farmers earn additional Rs 35000 crore.
In Phase-II, four more plants will be commissioned by 2022-23, producing another 18 crore bottles. Nano Urea has been tested on over 11000 locations, 94 crops and 20 Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes and State Agricultural Universities.
