Nano fertilisers see a jump in sales, but questions around efficacy remain

While Iffco has seen an increase in the sale of both nano urea and nano DAP, some industry players say that despite its intrinsic benefits, nano has still not caught the imagination of some farmers

Sales of nano fertilisers in the financial year ending March 2025 have seen an increase, suggesting greater acceptability but, strangely, the higher volumes have not stopped questions being asked around the product and its efficacy, possibly holding it back.

 

A few weeks ago, Udai Shanker Awasthi, chief executive officer and managing director of Iffco, one of India’s largest fertiliser manufacturers in the cooperative space, said that though sales have risen, he would have liked it to be much more.

 

Subsequently, Sailesh C Mehta, newly-appointed chairman of Fertiliser Association of India (Fai) and chairman and MD of Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation told Business Standard that nano fertilisers as a concept is very interesting but needs some more time to prove its efficacy at the ground level. Fai represents companies that together generate close to Rs 1 trillion in revenue.

 

Seen together, their comments present a conundrum regarding the future of nano fertilisers: on the one hand, a section of industry is apprehensive about nano products and wants more time to evaluate its actual efficacy, while on the other hand, sales have risen. 

 

Sales show farmers' affinity for nano

 

Data from Iffco shows that sales of nano fertilisers grew year on year in FY25 as compared to the previous fiscal.  Iffco’s nano urea sales in FY25 clocked a growth of 31 per cent as compared to FY24, while nano diammonium phosphate (DAP) registered a sales growth of 118 per cent.

 

Iffco is the sole manufacturer of nano urea, and competes with Coromandel International in the market for nano DAP. Therefore, its performance in the nano market more or less covers the entire domestic nano product universe as of now.

 

Nano products are currently available in urea and DAP variants, while trials are underway in other variants, such as nano zinc, sulphur, and copper.

 

The good news is that Iffco's nano fertiliser has gained global recognition over the past few years, with countries such as Brazil, Kenya, and the United States expressing strong interest in adopting the technology.

 

The company has expanded its nano fertiliser presence in over 40 countries in FY25, with higher performance and reduced fertiliser usage recorded in the US, Brazil, Slovenia, Mauritius, Zambia, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

 

Sources said the company is in an advanced state of talks to set up a nano fertiliser production facility outside India soon.

 

Iffco also initiated a nationwide ‘Model Nano Village and Clusters Project" in July 2024, selecting 203 village clusters spanning 2,000 acres each as pioneers in the adoption of nano fertilisers for reducing the use of bulk fertilisers with an increase in crop productivity and quality.

 

More than 90,000 farmers have been registered on the Nano Village portal, covering 5 lakh acres, with 40,000 farmers purchasing over 5.30 lakh bottles of Iffco nano fertilisers and Sagarika (WHAT IS THIS?? NANO DAP?), and 72,000 acres sprayed by agri drones.

 

“This project led to a 28.73 per cent reduction in chemical fertiliser use and a 5.8 per cent increase in crop yield,” the company said in a statement.

 

It added that Iffco is exploring options to use the data on chemical fertiliser reduction for the Carbon Credit Project for certification of GHG emission reduction through use of nano fertilisers.

 

Last year, Iffco also started ‘Agro Climatic Zone-wise Nano Fertiliser Trials’ along with the ministry of fertilisers.

 

Under the campaign, IFFCO undertook 1,470 two-plot demonstrations (200 for Nano Urea Plus and 1,270 for Nano DAP) across 15 agro-climatic zones in India.

 

These trials recorded average yield increases of 5.27 per cent for nano DAP and 5.28 per cent for nano urea over traditional fertilisers.

 

Doubts over nano efficacy persist

 

Some industry players said that despite all its intrinsic benefits, nano as a product has still not caught the imagination of some sections of farmers despite aggressive sales pitches, with companies even selling combos of one bag of conventional urea with one bottle of Nano urea.

 

“I feel it has something to do with cost of labour and also myths surrounding its efficacy, though we all know that when compared to conventional urea, nano urea is much better in all respects,” a senior industry executive had told Business Standard earlier.

 

“Also, in many cases, as nano urea is a foliar application where the liquid is spread on the leaves and upper part of the plants, farmers are apprehensive about whether it will have the desired impact, though we all know that foliar application leads to better nutrient-use efficiency (NUE) as compared to conventional forms,” he had said.

 

This executive pointed out that urea is usually applied three times in a plant – the first dose is given on the soil when the plant has not germinated, and the second and third doses are applied as the plant grows.

 

In the case of nano urea, the first dose isn’t possible or necessary because it has to be applied to the leaves, so only the second and third doses are required.

 

Jumbo plans for nano urea

 

India consumes around 35 million tonnes (MT) of urea annually, of which domestic production is around 25-27 MT while the rest is imported. When it comes to DAP, India consumes around 11 MT annually, of which almost half is imported.

 

As per a plan formulated a few years back, extensive use of nano urea along with commissioning of new plants would lead to a situation where, over the next few years, India’s overall reliance on urea imports would reduce to a trickle.

 

This, in turn, was expected to save foreign exchange of about Rs 40,000 crore per annum, government officials had said at the time.

 

However, the reality is starkly different.

 

Data shared by Iffco shows that in FY25, just around 1.2 MT of conventional urea has been replaced by nano products. In the case of DAP, the numbers are worse, with replacement levels at less than 500,000 tonnes.

 

This is less than 4 per cent of the total urea consumed in India and only a miniscule amount of India’s annual conventional DAP consumption. 

 

Benefits and pitfalls of nano urea

 

To assess the effectiveness of nano urea, the government has conducted research trials with 20 ICAR research institutes and state agricultural universities across 43 locations on 13 crops since 2019-20 in different agro-climatic regions. Over 11,000 farmer field trials on 94 crops were also conducted in collaboration with Indian Council of Agriculture Research (Icar)- Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVKs).

 

According to official reports, the studies showed an eight per cent increase in crop yields following foliar application of nano urea. The government also claimed that nano urea effectively fulfils the nitrogen (N) requirement of plants, given that it has a NUE of more than 85 per cent. Nitrogen is absorbed by crops through roots when applied in the soil and through foliage when sprayed.

 

The report estimated that application of nano urea on all crops would cut injudicious use of chemical fertilisers like urea by as much as 50 per cent.

 

From a financial perspective, too, government officials claim that nano urea will lead to an increase in farmers’ incomes given it would entail reduction in input cost, higher crop yield, and better prices because of higher quality crops.

 

Officials also claim that as per some estimates, farmer income could jump by an average of Rs 4,000 per acre if they use nano urea.

 

In fact, such is the goodwill around nano urea that, within two years, companies have launched nano DAP with plans to expand the technology to nano zinc and even complex fertilisers. 

 

For the ongoing rabi season, the government has pegged the country's nano urea requirement at 23.6 million bottles, with Uttar Pradesh leading the demand at 4.33 mn bottles, followed by Maharashtra (3.47 mn bottles) and Punjab at 2.08 mn bottles.

 

Conflicting reports from the field

 

But some studies show that all is not good with nano urea. A two-year field experiment by the Punjab Agricultural University released in January 2024 found that nano urea had a negative impact on yields for rice and wheat, the two most widely grown crops in the country.

 

It found a 21.6 per cent decrease in wheat yield and a 13 per cent decline in rice yield when nano urea was used instead of conventional nitrogen fertiliser. The grain nitrogen content in wheat, which is essential for protein production, was also found to be less on application of nano urea.

 

However, Iffco’s field trials and the large-scale studies show that there is lots of divergence there as well.