Despite govt push, few takers for nano fertilisers in Punjab
Neeraj Mohan
New Delhi, July 21
Despite vigorous promotion by the Indian Farmers and Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), nano urea and nano DAP fertilisers have failed to win over farmers and agricultural experts. These liquid fertilisers, introduced as revolutionary solutions for sustainable farming, are being met with scepticism in the primary fertiliser-consuming states of Punjab and Haryana.
Farmers being mislead
How can a 500 ml bottle be as potent as a 50 kg bag? The government is misleading farmers. It has already reduced the weight of the 50 kg bag to 45 kg, and now it wants to limit the availability of fertilisers. Sandeep Tyagi, farmer from gharaunda (karnal)
Launched in June 2021 by IFFCO — with nano DAP in April 2023 — the cooperative claimed to have sold 7.5 crore bottles of nano urea and 45 lakh bottles of nano DAP by April this year. However, the transition from traditional 45 kg bags of granular fertiliser to 500 ml bottles of nano urea, which IFFCO claims contains 40,000 mg/ml of nitrogen — sufficient to nourish an acre of crops — has been met with hesitation.
“Farmers do not buy nano urea or nano DAP as they prefer to buy traditional bags, which they believe are more potent. We have to make requests to farmers to sell it,” said an IFFCO dealer in Yamunanagar (Haryana), requesting anonymity.
However, farmers and experts remain unconvinced. “How can a 500 ml bottle be as potent as a 50 kg bag? The government is misleading the farmers. It has already reduced the weight of the 50 kg bag to 45 kg, and now it wants to limit the availability of fertilisers,” said Sandeep Tyagi, a farmer from Karnal’s Gharaunda.
Dr Dhanwinder Singh, HoD (Soils), Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, conducted a two-year field experiment and concluded that a 500 ml spray bottle of nano urea cannot substitute 50 per cent of soil N application. He noted that the protein content in wheat and rice grains is reduced, and using nano urea instead of 50 per cent N application to soil will reduce root biomass, causing reduced uptake of other nutrients. Even a spray of ordinary urea at the same rate as nano urea yielded similar results, indicating no particular benefit of nano urea over ordinary urea. Additionally, straw with reduced N content will take longer to decompose if incorporated into the soil.
Virender Singh Lather, a former principal scientist of ICAR-Indian Agriculture Research Institute, Delhi, stated, “The Indian Government promoted nano urea as a supplementary fertiliser to reduce its import bill and fulfil WTO conditions of reduced farm subsidies. Nano urea is a glaring example of pseudoscience and a tool to exploit farmers.”
Official data supports the continued preference for traditional fertilisers. The sales of key fertilisers in the first 11 months of the current fiscal up to February increased by 3 per cent to 57.57 million tonnes (MT), driven primarily by higher usage of DAP and complex fertilisers, while urea consumption remained stagnant. The Union Ministry revealed that the overall consumption of key fertilisers, especially urea, is on the rise. The sales of key fertilisers in the last financial year saw a 3 per cent increase, reaching around 58 MT. Despite an increase in the overall production of the four main fertilisers, including urea, DAP, and NPKS, reaching 428.84 lakh MT (2022-23) from 384.33 lakh MT (2020-21), the production still falls short of demand, which has grown to 628.25 lakh MT from 581.05 lakh MT during this period. This shortfall forces the country to import about 190 LMT of fertilisers annually, with 32 per cent of the total required fertilisers being imported to meet the demand.
