How does this fertilizer differ from conventional urea?

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Last Updated03/06/2022

The Prime Minister inaugurated the country's first liquid nano urea plant in Kalol, Gujarat.
This patented product is expected to substitute imported urea and produce better results in farms.

The liquid nano urea produced by Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) comes in a half-litre bottle priced at Rs 240, without any subsidy at present.
- In contrast, a farmer pays around Rs 300 for a 50-kg bag of heavily subsidized urea.
- The government's fertilizer subsidy payout this financial year will be Rs 2 lakh crore.
According to IFFCO, a bottle of nano urea can effectively replace at least one bag of conventional urea.
- The International market price of a bag of urea is between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000, and significant quantities are imported.
The product has been developed at IFFCO's Nano Biotechnology Research Centre (NBRC) in Kalol, Gujarat

Urea artificially provides nitrogen to plants.
Liquid nano urea, which contains 4% nitrogen by volume, comes in the form of a nanoparticle.
The efficiency of liquid nano urea can be 85-90%, compared to 25% for conventional urea.
Conventional urea is often applied incorrectly, and the nitrogen in it is vaporised or lost as gas.
A lot of nitrogen is also washed away during irrigation.
Liquid nano urea is sprayed directly on the leaves and gets absorbed by the plant.
IFFCO advises that 2-4 ml of nano urea should be mixed litre of water and sprayed on crop leaves at active growth stages.
Liquid nano urea has a shelf life of a year, and farmers need not worry about "caking" when it comes in contact with moisture.
IFFCO says the product has been tested on more than 90 crops across 11,000 locations in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendras of the Indian Council Of Agricultural Research(ICAR-KVKs), research institutes, state agriculture universities, and progressive farmers.
Apart from reducing the country's subsidy bill.
- It is aimed at reducing the unbalanced and indiscriminate use of conventional urea, increase crop productivity, and reduce soil, water, and air pollution.

At Kalol Plant, over 3.6 crore bottles of this urea have been produced, of which 2.5 crore have been sold.
IFFCO is setting up additional facilities for production of nano fertilisers in Aonla, Phulpur, Bengaluru, Paradeep. Kandla, Deoghar and Guwahati, besides expanding the Kalol plant, for the production of nano urea, nano DAP and nano micronutrients.
These units will have a production capacity of 2 lakh bottles per day.

Prelims Takeaway