Faridkot
If a farmer wants to buy two bags of Urea(Nitorgen 46 percent), he must have to buy one bottle of 500 ML of Nano Urea, which is supposed to be used for one acre.But they don't have any choice. They can not buy bags of urea, the traditional way to compensate for the deficiency of Nitrogen fertilizer.
In a year, on an average, farmers use 5 to 8 bags of Urea per acre in wheat-Paddy or potato crop circle.
According to the fertilizer dealers, they are selling it and it has been sold to them by the companies.”This is not illegal, there is no way out. We sell one bottle of Nano Urea after two bags of the Urea fertilizers to the farmers. The fertilizer manufacturers sell it to us mandatorily,” said a dealer from Kotkapura.
But farmers are not very innovative towards it due to many problems they have to face practically.
Nano Urea has to be sprayed and is more labour intensive which is already in shortage. If 100 litres of water is used to spray 500 ML of Nano Urea per acre, the farmers have to shell out about Rs 150, for 4 tanks of spray pumps at Rs 35 per pump.
And apart from it, spraying Nano is more difficult on paddy in comparison to the wheat when the fields are muddy.
Nano urea can also be applied through spray on the well growing leafy crop, not in the beginning.
What is Nano Urea
According to the official website of IFFCO,Nano Urea is a potential component of 4 Rnutient stewardship as it promotes precision and sustainable agriculutre.It promotes clean and green technology as its industrial production is neither energy intensive or resources consuming.In addition to it, Nano urea helps in minimizing the environmental footprint by reducing the loss of nutrients from agriculture fields in form of leeching and gaseous emission which used to cause environmental pollution and climate change.(From the IFFCO website)
The Union Government wants to promote Nano Urea, DAP-Dr Karanjeet Singh Gill, CAO Faridkot.
When contacted, Dr Karanjeet Singh Gill, chief agriculture officer Faridkot about the issue, he said that due to some benefits, the union government wants to promote Nano urea and DAP fertilizers. They want at least one application of fertilizer to be made of Nano Urea. So the dealers are getting it as per the policy, but they can not force the farmers to buy only Nano Urea. It can be sold in proportion to the Urea fertilizer as one bottle after two or three bags,” said Gill.
Panic driven farmers try to buy fertilizers in advance for some years now
As the farmers have to face frequent shortages of the major fertilizers, such as DAP and Urea, they try to buy it in advance and rush to the dealers. Big farmers are in a winning situation as they have good rapport with the dealers and dealers prefer to sell them the fertilizers and they also try to hoard it, buying more than needed in advance. While the small or marginal farmers are always at the receiving end.
Excessive use of fertilizers is also leading to the shortage.
Share of cooperative societies and private dealers
According to a fertilizer dealer from Kotkapura, 80 per cent fertilizer has to be allotted to the cooperative societies and we get only 20 per cent which is too less for our farmers. It is pertinent to mention that all the farmers do not have their accounts with cooperative societies, which are again dominated by political affiliation people,ie, their presidents and secretaries and small farmers again have to face many problems there too. However, some of the societies are doing excellent work.
Even some farmers have very small holdings,as less than 5 acres of land and they do agriculture on leased land even upto 100 acres. They also have to buy fertilizers from the private dealers.