NANO UREA – GEOGRAPHY
News: Our
attempt is to end import dependency on urea by 2025 and replace it with nano
urea and other alternate forms of urea
What's in the news?
● The
Union Cabinet recently approved a package of schemes for farmers with a total
outlay of ₹3,70,128.7 crore and the bulk of it — ₹3,68,676.7 crore — will be
used for assuring subsidy for urea for another three years
Major components of the package announced:
The
special package worth ₹3,70,128.7 crore was announced recently for the farmers.
There are four components in this package.
Relevance of Nano-Urea:
● Nano
urea was approved after all scientific studies by several governmental
institutions and departments.
● A
500 ml bottle of nano urea will replace one bag of 45 kilograms of urea. It
helps in soil restoration and also will reduce the transportation costs too.
Nano-Urea:
● It
is urea in the form of nanoparticles. Urea is a chemical nitrogen fertilizer,
which artificially provides nitrogen, a
major nutrient required by plants.
● It
has been developed at IFFCO’s Nano
Biotechnology Research Centre (NBRC) at Kalol.
● Liquid
nano urea is sprayed directly on the
leaves and gets absorbed by the plant.
● Fertilizers
in nano form provide a targeted supply of nutrients to crops, as they are
absorbed by the stomata, pores found on the epidermis of leaves.
● IFFCO
advises that 2-4 ml of nano urea
should be mixed a litre of water and sprayed on crop leaves at active growth
stages.
Benefits:
1. Increases yield:
● The
Nano-urea helps in increasing nutrient
uptake by plants resulting in more growth of economical parts of the plant.
● In
a way, the Nano-urea increases the overall yield by 7 percent compared to the conventional urea.
2. Improves efficiency:
● While
conventional urea has an efficiency of about 25 percent, the efficiency of
liquid nano urea can be as high as 85-90
percent.
3. Self Sufficiency and Reduce Import subsidy bill:
● India’s
domestic urea production as well as that of nano-urea would together mean India
would be “self sufficient” by 2025
in the manufacture of urea - the most important fertilizer for India’s farmers.
● It
would make India - no longer import 90 lakh tons every year and would save the
country close to ₹40,000 crore.
4. Gains farmers and reduces subsidy:
● IFFCO's
Liquid Nano urea comes in a
half-litre bottle priced at Rs 240, and carries no burden of subsidy currently.
● By
contrast, a farmer pays around Rs 300 for a 50-kg bag of heavily subsidized
urea.
5. Health of the soil and ecosystem:
● Unlike
urea’s, the nano-urea reduces the
leaching of nitrogen into the soil, thereby preserving soil nutrients and
helps in the maintenance of the overall soil ecosystem.
6. Checking out diversions:
● One
of the drawbacks of subsidized urea is that they are black marketed in the open market for industries to save the cost
of the industries.
● The
liquid nano-urea helps in checking out leakages and makes out transparency and
effective implementation of the government subsidy regime.