Nano Urea

Nano Urea

Subject: Science and Technology

Context:  Harish Hirani, director of Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur, recently inaugurated a “naturally ventilated polyhouse facility” and laid the foundation stone of “retractable roof polyhouse” its Ludhiana centre.

Concept:

• Nano Urea (Liquid) is a source of nitrogen which is a major essential nutrient required for proper growth and development of a plant. Nitrogen is a key constituent of amino acids, enzymes, genetic materials, photosynthetic pigments and energy transfer compounds in a plant. Typically, nitrogen content in a healthy plant is in the range of 1.5 to 4%.
• Foliar application of Nano Urea (Liquid) at critical crop growth stages of a plant effectively fulfils its nitrogen requirement and leads to higher crop productivity and quality in comparison to conventional urea.
• Nano Urea (Liquid) contains nanoscale nitrogen particles which have more surface area (10,000 times over 1 mm Urea prill) and number of particles (55,000 nitrogen particles over 1 mm Urea prill).which makes it more impactful.
• In comparison to Urea the uptake efficiency of Nano Urea is more than 80 %. It is thus, required in lesser measure compared to the conventional urea fertiliser to fulfil plant’s nitrogen requirement.
• Nano Urea (liquid) increases crop productivity and can reduce the requirement of conventional Urea by 50%.
• Application of nano urea (liquid) improves yield, biomass, soil health and nutritional quality of the produce.
• Nano Urea (liquid) has been tested for biosafety and toxicity as per the guidelines of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and OECD international guidelines.
• Nano Urea (liquid) is completely safe for human, animals, birds, rhizosphere organisms and environment at the recommended levels of application.
• Nano Urea (Liquid) does not involve any government subsidy and will be made available to farmers at a 10% lower price than a bag of subsidised Urea.
• Transportation would be easier and economical, as one 500 ml bottle would be equivalent to one bag of regular urea fertiliser.

Benefits of IFFCO Nano Urea

Nano Urea (liquid) has manifold benefits:

• Reduces the requirement of conventional Urea by 50% or more
• Required less and produces more: Efficacy of one bottle of Nano Urea (500 mL) is equivalent to one bag of urea.
• Environment friendly product, can improve Soil, Air & Water quality thus, helps in addressing the concerns of Global Warming and in meeting the UN SDGs.
• Cheaper than conventional urea.
• Reduce input cost to farmers, leads to increase in farmers’ income.
• Improves crop productivity, soil health and nutritional quality of produce.

Mechanism of assimilation by plants

• When sprayed on leaves Nano Urea easily enters through stomata and other openings and is assimilated by the plant cells.
• It is easily distributed through phloem from source to sink inside the plant as per its need. Unutilised nitrogen is stored in the plant vacuole and is slowly released for proper growth and development of plant.