Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda flagged off Nano Urea dispatch to Karnataka on Saturday. The minister also promised to award land to IFFCO for starting a Nano Urea production unit near Bangalore Airport.
“It is a momentous occasion for India where IFFCO is working towards realizing the Prime Minister’s dream of Aatmnirbhar Bharat and Aatmnirbhar Krishi. We will give you a site (land) near the airport in Bangalore from where IFFCO can produce Nano Urea from Karnataka,” Gowda said while flagging off Nano Urea dispatch to Karnataka.
Earlier IFFCO had requested Gowda to award land for a plant in Karnataka where Nano Urea and Nano DAP could be produced for the Southern parts of India. The use of Nano Urea by the farmers will not only improve soil health, and crop productivity but will also reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, claims IFFCO officials.
Dr U S Awasthi, Managing Director IFFCO said 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. He said that the 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 help farmers earn additional Rs 35000 crore.
“The plan has started trails of producing Nano Urea and Nano DAP from this Kharif crop and IFFCO is very hopeful of the success. Post which the plant would produce both Nano Urea and Nano DAP”, reads a press release quoting MD Awasthi.
Brijesh Kumar Dikshit, Commissioner of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, B S Nakai Chairman IFFCO, and Dileep Sanghani Vice Chairman IFFCO were present during the virtual flag off.
IFFCO had earlier dispatched Nano Urea shipments to the states of 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.
In Phase-II, four more plants will be commissioned by 2022-23, producing another 18 crore bottles. These non-subsidised bottles will be sold to the farmers, without any subsidy, at a price 10% lower than the price of a 45 kg urea bag. Use of this product shall reduce chemical fertilizer consumption especially of Urea by 50% or more.
Nano Urea has been tested on over 11000 locations, 94 crops and 20 Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes and State Agricultural Universities. The results showed that nano urea is very useful in increasing crop yield but also the nutritional quality.
“It is very easy to use by the farmers. One 500 ml bottle of Nano Urea is sufficient for spraying two times over an acre of field. Now, instead of carrying a 45 kg bag of Urea on shoulder, farmers can easily carry a 500 ml bottle of IFFCO Nano Urea to the fields”, stressed IFFCO official.
