Nano DAP to reduce India’s fertilisers import burden: Shah

Highlighting the importance of Nano (liquid) DAP in bringing a paradigm shift in agricultural practices, Union Home Affairs and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday that Nano (liquid) DAP would start replacing conventional Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizer. While launching IFFCO’s nano (liquid) DAP, Shah said, “Nano DAP contains 8 percent of Nitrogen and 16 percent of Phosphorus, which can replace a 50 kg bag of traditional DAP which is currently priced at Rs 1,350 for farmers. This would not only cut India’s fertilizer import dependence, but also boost wheat, sugar and potato farmers’ income significantly.” “Nano variants such as nano-urea and nano-DAP have immense potential tostrengthen the Indian economy by reducing the fertiliser input cost in agriculture,” Shah said, adding that Nano DAP will also contribute to bringing down the annual subsidy on non-urea fertilizers. Notably, MillenniumPost had firstreported about the commercial launch of Nano DAP in its February 10 edition of this year. The government had approved the launch citing its long term benefits to the farmers on the lines of nano urea. IFFCO’s one bottle of nano (liquid) DAP fertiliser, the world’s first and will replace a 50 kg bag of traditional DAP, will be available for commercial sale at Rs 600 per 500 mililetre (ml) bottle, less than half of the current price of conventional DAP. It was also informed at the launch event that the first manufacturing unit of nano DAP will be set up in Kalol of Gujarat. Farmers in states such as Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh use 6-8 bags of conventional DAP per acre to produce potato, while Karnataka andBihar excessively use DAP fertiliser for the production of maize, sugarcane and vegetables. To cut 9 million tonne (mt) of conventional DAP, IFFCO aims to produce 180 million bottles of nano DAP by 2025-26. Commenting on the development, manufacturer of India’s first Type Certified (TC) Agricultural drone Anoop Upadhyay said, “In the last fortnight, there have been two major developments - firstly, the release of SoPs for spraying pesticides through drones and now the launch of Nano DAP. Both of these augur well for the agri-drone sector.” DAP is the second most consumed fertiliser in the country after urea and out of the estimated annual consumption of around 10-12.5 million tonnes; local pro- duction is around 4-5 mt, while the rest is imported.