Nano urea will help farmers switch to natural farming: Amit Shah

The nano urea and nano DAP introduced by IFFCO will help farmers adopt natural farming without compromising on production, Union cooperation minister Amit Shah has said.

He was speaking after inaugurating a nano DAP (diammonium phosphate liquid ) manufacturing plant at the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited’s (IFFCO) unit at Kalol in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district on Tuesday. It is the world’s first such plant, IFFCO said in a statement..

The need of the hour was to reduce the use of urea and move towards natural farming, the Union minister added.

Nano urea does not percolate into the ground, and hence it does not harm earthworms, an important part of the natural farming system, he said.

Farmers can keep experimenting with nano urea for a couple of years until the land is ready and gets certified for natural farming, he said.

The minister urged farmers to switch from granular urea and DAP to the more efficient liquid forms of these fertilisers, saying that the use of granular urea harms not only crops but also people’s health.

The previous government ignored both farmers and farming for years, he alleged.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured that when there was a rise in the cost of fertiliser after the COVID-19 pandemic, the burden was not passed onto farmers. The result was that the subsidy on fertilisers rose from Rs 73,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 2.55 lakh crore, which was paid by the government,” he said.