NEW DELHI: Four years after the launch of nano urea in the country, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative IFFCO is setting up its first plant abroad for manufacturing nano-soil nutrients in Brazil.
The plant will be set up under a 7:3 joint venture between IFFCO subsidiary IFFCO Nanoventions, and Brazilian company NANOFERT. It will be producing 4.5 million litres of nano-fertilisers annually.
While the fertiliser major has exported 0.5 million bottles (500 ml each) of nano-soil nutrients over 40 countries including the United States, Brazil, Slovenia, Mauritius, Zambia, Nepal and Bangladesh, the plant in Curitiba in Parana province of Brazil is expected to increase its global market presence besides cutting costs.
“This is the first phase of the project after several field trials of nano fertilizers. Once product comes into the market it would create further demand. We will expand the production capacity in Brazil,” Lakshmanan Arunachalam, managing director, IFFCO Nanoventions, told FE.
The trial production in the Brazil plant would commence by the end of 2025. However the official declined to provide the investment details in Brazil citing confidentiality.
The aim is increased productivity of several crops such as corn, soybean, sugarcane, coffee and several other crops in the South American country where studies have shown increase in yield as well as reduction in usage of fertiliser on application of Nano fertilisers imported from India in the last couple of years.
Stating that Brazilian farmers not only want to reduce fertiliser use, they want to enhance productivity, Arunachalam said “There is over 20% reduction in usage of urea and DAP is possible soil applied usage. Some cases, Brazilian farmers use Nano fertiliser as a further nutrient to bridge the gap between demand and supply,”.
Ritesh Sharma, founder and chairman of board of NANOFERT said with the application of nano fertilizers there has been an increase in yield of 10% in case of corn and soybean while productivity increased over 7% in case of sugarcane, which is huge for Brazil, being the one of the largest producer of these commodities.
Recently U S Awasthi, managing director, IFFCO said “adoption of nano-fertilisers is not as fast as expected,” referring to rather slow adoption of nano-fertilizers in the country.
Against the current total annual manufacturing capacity of 289.5 million bottles (500 ml each) of nano-fertiliser, the cooperative major sold 26.5 million and 9.7 million bottles of nano urea plus and nano-DAP respectively in FY25, which is 31% and 118% more than 2023-24.
IFFCO will introduce nano Zinc and copper in liquid soon. Since commencement of research on nano-fertiliser in 2017, IFFCO has spent around Rs 4,200 crore in setting up capacities in an effort to increase its acceptability amongst the farmers.
According to industry sources, the large-scale adoption of nano variants of urea and DAP, may take at least three more years. The government has been giving priority to nano fertilisers with a view to cutting extensive use of highly subsidised conventional fertilizers.
In June 2021, cooperative IFFCO launched nano urea in liquid form as an alternative to conventional urea. In April, 2023, the fertiliser cooperative major had launched nano-DAP, which aimed at decreasing the country’s import dependence on soil nutrient variety.
Nano urea is available at around Rs 240/bottle of 500 ml while nano liquid DAP at Rs 600/bottle.
Soil nutrient in liquid form provides nitrogen to plants as an alternative to conventional urea. A 500 ml bottle of nano urea is equivalent to a 45 kg bag of conventional urea.
The fertiliser subsidy for 2025-26 is projected at Rs 1.67 trillion.
In case of urea, farmers pay a fixed price Rs 242 per bag (45 kg) against the cost of production of around Rs 2,650 per bag. The balance is provided by the government as a subsidy to fertiliser units.
The retail prices of phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertiliser, including DAP were ‘decontrolled’ in 2020 with the introduction of a ‘fixed-subsidy’ regime as part of Nutrient Based Subsidy mechanism announced by the government twice in a year.
Source: The Financial Express
