Nanotechnology will be the game changer in agriculture in the days ahead, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has said. Addressing a large number of farmers after inaugurating the country’s first Nano DAP plant by IFFCO near Kalol in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), he said it is the need of the hour to adopt natural farming and reduce the use of fertilizers in agriculture without compromising the scale of the production.
The Minister lauded IFFCO’s contribution in developing nano variants and coming up with successful alternatives to chemical fertilizers. Shah said that besides the increase in budget and loan assistance to the farmers, the government has increased the fertilizer subsidies following the rise in fertilizers’ prices globally. The Minister said unlike the solid DAP and Urea, the liquid nano DAP will not affect the nutrients in the soil and will have zero harmful metal particles. He said the DAP plant will largely benefit the farmers of the region.
The Nano liquid DAP plant in Kalol has been set up by IFFCO at the cost of Rs 300 crore. The plant has been developed in tune with the Aatmnirbhar Bharat vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. IFCCO chairman Dilip Sanghani said while one bag of conventional DAP costs around Rs 1,300, farmers can get one bottle of nano liquid DAP for just Rs 600 which can be carried by farmers in their pockets. The plant will lead to a significant reduction in imports of DAP and also will bring down the logistics and warehousing costs. The plant will produce 5 crore bottles of Nano DAP liquid equivalent to 25 tons of DAP.
IFFCO said in its statement that its first-of-its-kind plant that will produce 500 ml IFFCO nano DAP (liquid) bottles equivalent to one bag of conventional DAP. The plant will have the capacity to manufacture two lakh bottles per day. The introduction of IFFCO nano DAP (liquid), a project spearheaded by prime minister Modi, "will fundamentally change India's agricultural industry, bringing prosperity to farmers and fostering self-sufficiency in fertilizer production," it said.
In February 2021, PM Modi approved the production of nano urea, and by 2023 the country developed the infrastructure necessary to produce roughly 17 crore nano urea bottles. IFFCO has taken the lead by launching most of the operational plants and more are in the pipeline. It began to make nano urea in August 2021, and as of March 2023, around 6.3 crore bottles had been produced.