Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been conducting trials of nano fertilisers such as nano urea and nano DAP, developed by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) and Coromandel International respectively.
On the basis of the information provided by ICAR, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Bhagwanth Khuba said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Friday that trials were conducted at 20 selected locations in selected crops to study the effect of nano-urea (liquid) developed by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), used as foliar spray. The study indicated that nano-urea can be used as a foliar spray for top-dressing instead of conventional urea. In addition, foliar application of nano urea along with the basal application of a recommended dose of conventional urea has a yield advantage of 3-8 per cent over conventional fertiliser application. Accordingly, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) has provisionally notified nano urea as Nano Nitrogen Fertilizers in Fertilizer Control Order, 1985.
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Further, ICAR has informed that IFFCO and Coromandel International have developed nano DAP and have conducted preliminary field trials on selected crops in selected ICAR institutes and state agriculture universities (SAUs). The report indicated that with the use of nano DAP as seed treatment and foliar application, there is a possibility of saving 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 Coromandel International and IFFCO have been granted permission to manufacture nano DAP, the minister further said.
The Government of India is not directly involved in setting up of production of nano fertilisers. However, three nano urea plants at Kalol, Phulpur and Aonla with a capacity of 17 crore bottles have been set up by IFFCO, Khuba informed the parliament.
Further, IFFCO has started commercial production of nano DAP from 8th March 2023 at its Kalol plant and will commission two more plants at Kandla and Paradeep. Moreover, Coromandel International (CIL) has also established a state-of-the-art nano DAP production facility in Andhra Pradesh with a manufacturing capacity of four crore bottles (1 litre each) per year, the minister informed the parliament.
