For years, perhaps decades, farmers in Punjab and Haryana have struggled with poor crop output: the result of deteriorating soil health and erratic irrigation in a region known as the bread basket of India.
Intensive groundwater irrigation and excess use of fertilizer to boost farm production have caused soil quality to worsen in several villages of the predominantly agricultural states.
Nano urea, a nanotechnology-based farm nutrient claimed to have been developed by Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited, or IFFCO, has been plugged as an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution to the concerns of farmers.
Required to be used in low quantities, the input that provides nitrogen to crops, is said to have minimal impact on the environment, help in reducing the release of greenhouse gases and improve air and water quality.
And yet, farmers in Punjab and Haryana have remained leery of Nano Urea. Lack of awareness, fear of change, difficulties in procuring it and the absence of support from local officialdom have contributed to this state of affairs, experts say.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inaugurating the first nano urea production plant in Gujarat’s Kalol on May 28, 2022, said: “A small bottle (500 ml) of nano uread is equivalent to one 50 kg bag of granular urea currently used by farmers.”
It has been almost a year since the new product, billed as a potential replacement for urea granules, one of the most widely used inputs in farmlands across the world, was launched.
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Why are farmers resisting it?
On a visit to villages in Bhatinda and Patiala districts of Punjab; and Haryana’s Jind and Fatehabad, Moneycontrol found that most farmers were either not aware that something like nano urea or simply fearful of adopting something strange.
“No one around us is using it. We do not know how it will affect our crops. We only have two acres of land to cultivate. We cannot risk losing our harvest by conducting experiments over it,” said Gurjant Singh, 69, a farmer in Govindpura, Bhatinda.
Lack of support from local officials tasked with popularizing the use of nano urea on the ground is another reason.
The Central government’s 39th report to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers (2022-23) talks about how it has been trying to promote the use of nano urea through village-level demonstrations on its application and Kisan Sammelans; no such activity has taken place in villages visited by Moneycontrol.
“No information on this has come to us. We have started seeing these bottles at fertilizer and pesticide shops. They are available with our Arhtiyas (commission agents) but we do not know how to use them, what quantity to use them in and how it will affect our crops,” said farmer Bimla Devi of Dumarkha Khurd village in Jind.
A peculiar snag that has cropped up is the political opponents of Prime Minister Modi branding it a “Modi product” and so to be avoided because he launched it.
“I had bought about 10,000 bottles of nano urea of which about 5,000 have been sold in the past 8 months. But people are reluctant to buy it as they call it a Modi product,” said an Arhtiya in Sangrur, Punjab, who requested anonymity.
The pain experienced by farmers during their prolonged campaign against three farm laws introduced by the Centre still runs deep in the hearts of farmers, who are reluctant to adopt measures launched by the government.
Another snag is in the manual dissemination of nano urea.
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Health concerns
The 39th report by the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers (2022-23) found that disseminating it manually is harmful to the hands, skin and eyes of farmers. It also pointed out that the efficacy of nano urea depends a lot on its proper use.
The committee also found that manual spray of nano fertilizer was time-consuming and too costly in terms of labour; it encouraged the use of drones for the dispersal of nano urea in farmlands.
The widespread availability of drones for agricultural purposes is still a far off-dream for farmers, 86 percent of whom are marginal and small tillers who fighting for the basics of life.
Up next: How a two-fold rise in production costs is eating into farmers' profits
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