The federal government ought to enable urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and different subsidised commodity fertilisers to be freely coated with micronutrients whereas eradicating controls from the utmost retail costs (MRP) of those fortified merchandise, mentioned a high govt of a serious fertiliser firm.
“Our farmers are aware of urea and DAP purposes. We should additionally recognise the potential of utilizing these commodity fertilisers as provider merchandise for delivering micronutrients and secondary vitamins to their crops”, mentioned Sanjiv Kanwar, managing director, Yara Fertilisers India Pvt. Ltd.
The Indian subsidiary of the $24.05-billion Norwegian crop diet firm has a 1.2-million tonne urea plant at Babrala in Uttar Pradesh, which it acquired from Tata Chemical compounds Ltd in a Rs 2,682-crore deal in 2018.
Urea is a managed fertiliser, with the federal government fixing its MRP at Rs 5,628 per tonne. Even in DAP, which is technically decontrolled, subsidy funds, to cowl the upper price of manufacturing or imports by corporations, are conditional upon their not charging greater than Rs 27,000 per tonne from farmers.
Worth controls have resulted in corporations now solely “distributing” and never “advertising and marketing” fertilisers, mentioned Kanwar. They haven’t any incentive to spend money on product innovation or know-how that improves nutrient use effectivity in farmers’ fields.
One option to handle that is by permitting urea, DAP or muriate of potash (containing major vitamins: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) to be coated with micronutrients (zinc, iron, copper, boron, manganese and molybdenum) and secondary vitamins (sulphur, calcium and magnesium).
Yara claims that its trials have proven yields for ‘PR-126’ selection paddy in Punjab rising from 24 to twenty-eight quintals per acre, when farmers apply zinc sulphate (ZnSO4) fertiliser on high of urea. It goes up additional to 30 quintals once they use YaraVita Procote, a proprietary know-how for coating urea with zinc oxide. YaraVita Procote accommodates 39.5% zinc, as in opposition to 33% in ZnSO4.
“YaraVita Procote is a platform that can be utilized to coat all customary fertilisers with any micronutrient. The elevated crop yields aren’t solely as a consequence of larger zinc content material, but additionally as a result of it’s evenly distributed, with each single fertiliser granule carrying a skinny lining of the micronutrient,” defined Kanwar.
On the authorities’s buy value of Rs 2,060/quintal, the two quintals further yield from YaraVita Procote (over abnormal ZnSO4 utility) interprets into a further income of Rs 4,120 per acre. It could be much more (6 quintals or Rs 12,360 per acre) if the farmer doesn’t apply any zinc. With YaraVita Procote, the farmer additionally saves the price of making use of ZnSO4 individually.
“We wish the federal government to allow free pricing of all micro and secondary nutrient-coated fertilisers. Let the farmer select between making use of solely urea, urea with ZnSO4, and zinc-coated urea. He would pay the next value for our product provided that the crop yield advantages outweigh the additional expenditure,” mentioned Kanwar.
The federal government presently does enable subsidised fertilisers, together with urea and DAP, to be fortified with zinc and boron. Nonetheless, zincated urea and boronated DAP makers are offered a further subsidy of solely Rs 500 and Rs 300 per tonne respectively, moreover being permitted to promote at 10 per cent above the managed MRPs for the common non-fortified variants.
“They need to merely let loose the MRPs for all coated fertilisers. Provided that common urea or DAP will proceed to be bought at closely subsidised charges, corporations wouldn’t be capable of cost an excessive amount of of a premium on their fortified fertiliser merchandise. Additionally, go away it to the businesses to resolve the proportion of fortification by micro and secondary vitamins, whether or not singly and together,” added Kanwar.
In response to him, a market price-driven coverage for coating of commodity fertilisers with micro and secondary vitamins will result in corporations working nearer with farmers. As an alternative of simply “distributing” common urea, they are going to begin “advertising and marketing” fortified urea with improved nitrogen use effectivity.