Prime Minister Narendra Modi The Central government’s subsidy bill for fertilizers will cross an estimated Rs 2 lakh crore this fiscal, which is 25 per cent more than the fertilizer subsidy of the previous fiscal, it said on Saturday.
The Prime Minister virtually inaugurated the “Country’s First Nano Urea Liquid” Plant of IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited) during a “Sahakar Se Prosperity” program of all cooperative institutions of Gujarat at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. The Rs 175 crore IFFCO unit at Kalol has a capacity to produce 1.5 lakh 500 ml bottles of Nano Urea.
During the programme, Modi also promised to set up eight new nano urea liquid plants that would help reduce India’s dependence on imported fertilisers.
“It gives me a special pleasure to inaugurate the country’s first Nano Urea Plant at Kalol… A half liter bottle of Nano Urea will be equivalent to a bag (50 kg) of urea. Just imagine the transportation for the farmer. What will be the cost savings. Eight more such plants will be set up across the country in the coming days. This will reduce our dependence on imported urea. I hope this innovation will not be limited to urea only and will be replicated for other fertilizers as well. Will go
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India is the second largest consumer of urea globally. But we are third in terms of production… We import a quarter of our requirement for fertilisers. But in case of potash and phosphate, we import 100 per cent of our requirement from abroad,” Modi said while addressing a gathering of members of cooperative bodies largely from the dairy and banking sectors.
The Prime Minister told how the availability was reduced because of Russia-Ukraine struggle and COVID-19 Due to the pandemic, the prices of fertilizers in the international market had moved northwards. However, the government did not increase the prices of fertilizers, he said.
“A 50 kg bag of imported urea costs Rs 3,500. The farmer gets the bag for Rs 300. Our government bears a burden of Rs 3,200 on each sack. Similarly, on 50 kg bags of DAP, our government absorbs Rs 2,500,” the prime minister said, adding that in the last 12 months, there has been a 5-fold increase in the subsidy provided.
“To ensure that farmers do not suffer, the government had provided fertilizer subsidy of Rs 1.6 lakh crore last year. This relief given to farmers is estimated to cross Rs 2 lakh crore this year. But we have to think whether we can allow our farmers to depend on international events. Why is the money being spent by the Indian government going abroad? Should this money be used for the welfare of farmers and for a permanent solution,” Modi said on how natural farming can help in providing a sustainable solution.
Modi said, “Lakhs of small farmers in Gujarat are now moving towards natural farming. However, according to the estimates of the Gujarat government, farmers in Gujarat will need 19.95 lakh metric tonnes of chemical fertilizers during the upcoming kharif season 2022. This requirement of fertilizers will be 19 percent more in 2021 than the corresponding season.
Later in the evening, IFFCO said in a release that it has produced 36 million bottles of nano urea, of which 25 million bottles have already been sold to farmers.
IFFCO also said that it has set up additional manufacturing facilities at Amla, Phulpur, Kalol (Extension), Bengaluru, Paradip, Kandla, Deoghar (Bihar) and Guwahati for production of nano fertilizers like Nano Urea, Nano DAP and Nano Micronutrients. are of.
“All these units will have a design production capacity of 2 lakh bottles per day with a total investment of Rs 3000 crore, of which Rs 750 crore has already been committed,” the statement said.
Modi also talked about the reopening of large urea producing units in the country, which were closed due to lack of state-of-the-art technology. He described Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Telangana as salty where such units have been closed.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and in the state program, he said, “Units have resumed in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, and the other three will start functioning soon.” Will do it.” BJP President CR Patil was present.
Talking about setting up of Adarsh cooperative villages, he said that six villages have been selected in Gujarat where all the systems would be run by cooperatives.
Modi also said that the first housing cooperative in the country was at Paldi in Ahmedabad, where the Pritam Nagar housing scheme was a current example of a cooperative movement in the housing sector.
“Today India is the largest producer of milk with Gujarat having a major share. In a year, we produce milk worth Rs 8 lakh crore, which is more than the total market for wheat and rice. He also recalled the “Lijjat Papad” brand that emerged as a successful cooperative by the women of the tribal region of Gujarat.
Union Home Minister Shah listed out the decisions which were “in the pipeline” and would be taken up by the Ministry of Cooperation under his chairmanship in the near future.
He said that the Modi government is consulting stakeholders for a new cooperative policy. The government is creating a database of all cooperative societies in the country and is taking the help of Amul to set up a laboratory to certify organic products at Amulfed Dairy in Gandhinagar.
“We will make several changes in the Inter-State Co-operative Societies Act… there will be transparency in our recruitments and procurement. We are also in consultation with all the states to change our audit system. All this will increase people’s confidence in cooperative bodies,” he said.
CM Bhupendra Patel said that there are 2.31 crore cooperative members in Gujarat. “Every second Gujarati is associated with the cooperative sector,” he said.