Four years after the launch of nano urea and nano-DAP (diammonium phosphate) subsequently, their adoption among farmers has not been as fast as expected.
“Adoption of nano-fertilisers is not as fast as expected,” U S Awasthi, managing director, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) said after the annual general meeting of the company. IFFCO will introduce nano Zinc and copper in liquid soon.
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.
“The sale volume is equivalent to 1.2 million tonne (MT) of conventional urea and 0.48 MT of conventional DAP,” according to a statement by the cooperative.
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 fertilisers.
“We have done 200 nano-villages programme in which 90,000 farmers participated where we found there was 28.3% reduction in the use of solid fertiliser. There sales of nano-fertilisers is slowly peaking up and this process of adoption gaining momentum,” Awasthi said.
He said the cooperative has monitored several places where nano-fertilisers are being used and found 5.7% average increase in crop yield.
“We are also trying to communicate to the farmers but accepting something new (technology), there is a resistance we cannot deny. We are trying all kinds of things but success is not as much as we expected,” Awathi said.
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.
Awasthi said 0.5 million bottles of nano fertilisers have been exported to several countries and trials has been conducted while in the US and Brazil, approval has been received. The plant in Brazil for manufacturing nano-fertiliser is being set up, which is a JV between IFFCO and Nanofert, Brazil.
The government had earlier aimed to increase the current annual production capacity of nano urea to 440 million bottles (550 ml each) by 2025, which potentially is equivalent to 20 million tonne (MT) of conventional urea.
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.
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.
Nano urea is available at around Rs 240/bottle of 500 ml while nano liquid DAP at Rs 600/bottle.
IFFCO posted a 4.5% growth in its total sales turnover at Rs 41,244 crore in 2024-25. The cooperative reported a 16% increase in net profit to Rs 2,823 last fiscal on year.
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.