Urea rules India’s Farms

Urea rules India’s Farms

Subject :Environment

Section: Species in news

Context: Sales of the nitrogenous fertiliser have scaled new highs despite measures to check its use.

Background:

• In May 2015, the Centre made it mandatory to coat all indigenously manufactured and imported urea with neem oil. This was followed by replacing 50-kg bags with 45-kg ones in March 2018, and the launch of liquid ‘Nano Urea’ by the Indian Farmers’ Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in June 2021.
• None of the above measures — checking illegal diversion for non-agricultural use, smaller bags, and increasing nitrogen use efficiency — have succeeded in reducing urea consumption.
• Sales of urea crossed a record 35.7 million tonnes (mt) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. Consumption did dip in the initial two years after neem-coating was fully enforced from December 2015, seemingly making it difficult for the heavily subsidisedfertiliser to be used by plywood, particle board, textile dye, cattle feed and synthetic milk makers.
• But that trend reversed from 2018-19. Urea sales in 2022-23 were about 5.1 mt higher than in 2015-16 and over 9 mt than in 2009-10, before the introduction of the so-called nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime in April 2010. All other fertilisers, barring single super phosphate (SSP), have registered much lower increases or even declines.

The failure of NBS

• Under NBS, the government fixed a per-kg subsidy for each fertiliser nutrient: Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potash (K) and sulphur (S). This was as against the earlier product-specific subsidy regime.
• Linking subsidy to nutrient content was intended to promote balanced fertilisation by discouraging farmers from applying too much urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MOP). These are fertilisers with high content of a single nutrient: Urea (46% N), DAP (46% P plus 18% N) and MOP (60% K).
• NBS was expected to induce product innovation, besides more use of complex fertilisers (having lower concentrations of N, P, K and S in different proportions) and SSP (containing only 16% P but also 11% S).
• However, the data reveals worsening of nutrient imbalance, with urea consumption rising by over a third since 2009-10. This has been largely courtesy of its maximum retail price (MRP) going up by a mere 16.5% – from Rs 4,830 to Rs 5,628 per tonne – post the introduction of NBS.
• The government has, in the last one year, also brought back price controls on DAP, with companies not allowed to charge more than Rs 27,000 per tonne. It has led to the sales of both fertilisers soaring in 2022-23, at the expense of NPKS complexes and SSP.

The cost of imbalanced fertilization

• Fertilisers are essentially food for crops. They, like humans, need nutrients – primary (N, P, K), secondary (S, calcium, magnesium) and micro (iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum) – for plant growth and grain yield.
• More recent research at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana – has established a decline in nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) itself. NUE refers to the proportion of N applied mainly through urea that is actually utilised by crops to produce harvested yields. It has estimated the NUE in India to have fallen from 48.2% in 1962-63 to 34.7% in 2018. The 34.7% NUE was below the global average of 45.3% and 53.3% for North America in 2018.
• This soil organic nitrogen may then undergo mineralisation (reconvert into inorganic ammonium form) and become available to the subsequent crops. The remaining unutilised N, however, escapes from the soil-plant system through hydrolysis (breakdown of urea into ammonia gas and its release into the atmosphere) and nitrification (below-the-ground leaching after conversion into nitrate).

Solution:

• The obvious solution is to reduce its consumption and promote products containing other nutrients in desired (crop- and soil-specific) combinations.
• There are two approaches to cut urea consumption. The first is raising prices. Second approach is to improve NUE – enabling farmers to harvest the same or more grain yields with fewer bags.
• Nano Urea is also primarily aimed at boosting NUE. The ultra-small size of its particles (20-50 nanometers, as against 1-4 millimeters for normal prilled/granular urea; 1 mm=1 million nm) is said to allow easier penetration through the stomatal pores of leaves. IFFCO claims that a single 500-ml Nano Urea bottle containing just 4% N can effectively replace “at least” one 45-kg bag of regular 46% N urea.

Fertilizer usage in India https://optimizeias.com/imbalance-in-fertilizer-use/

Nano Urea: 

• 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) 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

• increase the nutrient usage efficiency Efficacy of one bottle of Nano Urea (500 mL) is equivalent to one bag of urea.
• minimize nutrient losses
• Reduces the requirement of conventional Urea by 50% or more
• Environment friendly product, can improve Soil, Air & Water quality thus, helps in addressing the concerns of Global Warming and in meeting the UN SDGs.
•  increase the crop yield by an average of 8 per cent along with improving the quality of farm produce by providing better nutrition to crops, according to the coorperative.
• 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.
• 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.

Mechanism of assimilation by plants

The size of one nano urea liquid particle is 30 nanometre and compared to the conventional granular urea it has about 10,000 times more surface area to volume size. Due to the ultra-small size and surface properties, the nano urea liquid gets absorbed by plants more effectively when sprayed on their leaves.

Upon penetration, these nanoparticles reach plant parts where nitrogen is required and release nutrients in a controlled manner, thereby reducing usage while also reducing wastage into the environment.

• 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.