Urea is back, farmers in the lurch
Scientists have dismissed Sri Lankan authorities turning to nano nitrogen from India considered environmentally friendly as it has an inadequate quantity of Nitrogen to generate sufficient yields and is actually recommended to be used as a supplementary fertilizer, not a standalone.
This product purchased by the Indian Fertilisers for Farmers Cooperative (IFFCO) is manufactured using nanotechnology.
It is a urea-based formulation where urea is coated with polymers to make nano-size particles and so it is not an organic fertiliser but a chemical fertiliser, the Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) said in a statement on Thursday.
This very new product had received approval in India in March this year for use on a large scale and the three applications of 2.5 litres at a time for one hectare (i.e. 7.5 litres in total) is adequate to provide required nitrogen content of 300g for one hectare. Paddy per hectare requires nearly 105 kg to generate a yield of 4-5 tons of grains per hectare. Accordingly, nano nitrogen should then be applied at a rate of 1, 250 litres per hectare, which is an impossible task, they said.
This nano nitrogen is actually a supplementary fertiliser to be used with 50 percent recommended dose of urea.
Moreover, such sprays are hard to be used by our farmers without drone technology in place, and further this needs to be tested prior to importing it to avoid any negative impacts as Sri Lanka has not yet developed required SLS standards for these nano-fertilisers, FUTA said.
Moreover, without giving the right fertility to the soil and depending solely on foliar fertilisers at high concentrations could damage leaves as well. Therefore, scientists argue that the available option would be to have repeated application of the expensive nano nitrogen fertiliser at a lower dosage.
Agriculture Ministry Secretary Prof. Udith Jayasinghe noted that 31 million litres of nano nitrogen fertiliser will be procured from India and this is being brought in following a tender procedure by recognising the product as high quality third generation product.
About 18 million litres will be required for paddy cultivation and 3.5 million for maize, he said adding that around Rs.9 billion will be spent for the paddy fertiliser. This, he said is three times less costly than importing urea.