Progress of Nano urea production
Recently the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers has reviewed the progress of production and sale of Nano Urea for the financial year 2022-23.
- In the year 2022-23, 60 million bottles of nano urea, equivalent to 27 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of conventional urea, will be produced. Along with this, they will also be made available to the farmers.
- Nano Urea is a patented chemical nitrogen fertilizer. It consists of nano nitrogen particles of 20-50 nanometers. It has been developed by IFFCO’s Nano Biotechnology Research Center at Kalol.
- The nutrient utilization efficiency of Nano Urea is more than 80%. In contrast, this efficiency is only 30-50% of conventional granular urea.
- The nutrient utilization potential of nano urea is high because nano urea has high surface-mass ratios. This feature helps in controlled availability of nutrients to the plants.
- It increases crop productivity by up to 8%.
Reasons for wastage of nitrogen from conventional urea:
- Leaching: This contaminates the soil and water bodies.
- Evaporation: Air pollution and reduction of nitrous oxide emissions into the atmosphere contribute to global warming.
Ways to increase the nutrient utilization capacity of conventional urea:
- Fertilizer deepening,
- Fertilizer application in multiple phases (two or more times during crop growth),
- sprinkling of fertilizers on the leaves of the crop,
- Using Neem coated urea,
- Manure and urea fertilizers should be applied only when the soil and air temperature is cool or when it is expected to rain soon after fertilizer application.
Source – The Hindu
