The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers on Sunday said nano urea, a liquid fertilizer developed by IFFCO to reduce farmers’ dependence on packaged urea, had been allowed for commercial use based on existing rules that provisionally allow fertilizers to be used based on data from only two cropping seasons.
The Hindu had reported on Sunday that the usual practice for recommending (or rejecting) a new fertilizer for commercial use required three seasons of independent assessment by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) , but in the case of nano urea this was reduced to two.
“It has been wrongly quoted in the news report that the process has been ‘fast tracked’. It is clarified that the established and existing procedure for registration of any fertilizer for notification as per Fertiliser Control Order (FCO), 1985 has been fully accounted for,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Nano Urea has been provisionally notified under FCO based on encouraging results and feedback received from scientists of ICAR and State Agricultural Universities. Central Fertilizer Committee (CFC), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA & FW) has also recommended it based on data and due deliberations in this regard, it added.
