COIMBATORE: Scientists of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) have urged farmers in the western belt to use nano liquid urea, which was launched by Indian Farmers and Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) recently, as it can improve yield and reduces the impact on soil and environment.
Nano liquid urea has been independently evaluated, validated and tested for biosafety by the department of nano science and technology, directorate of natural resource management of TNAU by a team of scientists led by K S Subramanian. It was tested for three years in crops such as rice and maize and applied using drones.
Apart from TNAU, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) conducted trials in 11,000 places spread across the country covering all agro-climatic zones and crops and found that the product gave consistently higher yield regardless of the soil fertility status in the range of 8 to 40%.
A large number of farmers took part in a field day organised at the Agricultural Research Station at Bhavanisagar in Erode on Saturday.
A bottle of liquid nano urea, consisting of 500ml, should be dissolved in 125 litres of water and sprayed on crops twice - 20 days after sowing or transplanting, and after 40 days, Subramanian told farmers. “Compared to manual spray, spraying through drone was found to be economical and time-saving. It just takes five minute to cover an acre,” he said.
Efficiency of ordinary urea is constant in the range between 30-35%, leaving major portion of unutilized nitrogen vaporized as ammonia into atmosphere or leached out into the groundwater, causing eutrophication.
State marketing manager of IFFCO C Jayaraj, joint director of agriculture C Chinnasamy, director of research M Raveendran and director of natural resource management P. Balasubramanian attended the event.
