Modi inaugurates Nano Urea (Liquid) plant at IFFCO, Kalol

Gandhinagar, May 28, 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated a Nano Urea (Liquid) plant at IFFCO, Kalol in Gujarat via video conference and expressed confidence that, in the future, other nano fertilizers would be available to farmers in the country.

Modi also addressed a seminar of leaders of various cooperative institutions on "Sahakar Se Samriddhi" at the same venue -- Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel, Union Ministers Amit Shah and Mansukh Mandaviya, MPs, MLAs, Gujarat Ministers and leaders of the cooperative sector were among those present on the occasion.

Modi told the gathering that cooperation was a great medium for the self-sufficiency of the village and had the energy of "AtmaNirbhar Bharat" (Self-Reliant India).

He recalled that Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had showed people the way of bringing self-sufficiency to villages.

"Along those lines, today we are moving ahead on the path of developing a model cooperative village. Six villages in Gujarat have been chosen where all the cooperative-related activities would be implemented," he said.

On the nano urea (liquid) plant at IFFCO, he said the power of a full sack of urea had come into a half-litre bottle, leading to huge savings in transportation and storage.

The plant will produce about 1.5 lakh bottles of 500 ml per day, he said, adding that eight more such plants would be established in the country soon.

"This will reduce foreign dependence with regard to urea and will save the country's money. I am confident that this innovation will not remain confined to urea. In the future other nano fertilizers will be available to our farmers," he said.

The Prime Minister said India is the second-largest consumer of urea in the world but only the third-largest producer. After the formation of the government in 2014, the government did 100% neem coating of urea. This ensured that the farmers of the country got enough urea.

Simultaneously, the work of restarting five closed fertilizer factories in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Telangana was initiated. The UP and Telangana factories have already started production, and the other three factories also will soon start working, he said.

Talking about the import dependence with regard to urea and phosphate and potash-based fertilizers the Prime Minister dwelled on high prices and lack of availability in the global market due to the pandemic and war.

He said the government did not allow problems to be passed on to the farmers and despite the difficult situation did not let any crisis of fertilizer develop in India. A urea bag costing Rs 3500 is made available to the farmer for Rs 300 while the government bears Rs 3200 per bag. Similarly on a bag of DAP, government bears Rs 2500 as opposed to Rs 500 borne by the earlier governments. The Union Government gave a subsidy of Rs 1 lakh 60 thousand crore last year, this year this subsidy is going to be more than Rs 2 lakh crore, he said.

He promised to do whatever was necessary for the interest of the farmers of the country and continue to strengthen them.

Modi said that, in the last eight years, the government had worked on both the immediate and long-term solutions to the problems being faced by the country. He cited solutions like improving health infrastructure to deal with any further pandemic shock, Mission Oil Palm to tackle edible oil problems, bio-fuel and hydrogen fuel to handle oil problems, natural farming, and nanotechnology push are also results of this approach. Similarly, he said, there is a solution to many of India's difficulties in self-reliance. He cited co-operatives as a great model of self-reliance.

"The example of the cooperative model of the dairy sector is before us. Today India is the largest milk producer in the world among which Gujarat has a major share. The dairy sector is also growing rapidly in the last few years and is also contributing more to the rural economy. In Gujarat, milk-based industries were widely spread because the restrictions on the part of the government were minimal in this. The government plays the role of only a facilitator here, the rest is either done by cooperatives or farmers," he said.

NNN