Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah Saturday called for a new green revolution in the country by developing new varieties of seeds, adopting cost-effective natural farming practices and exporting agricultural products across the world through cooperative societies to ensure prosperity of farmers.
Shah was addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation stone of a plant to manufacture nano liquid DAP (diammonium phosphate) fertilizer near the Kandla port near Gandhidham town in Kutch district of Gujarat.
The plant to manufacture liquid nano DAP fertiliser will be set up by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) at a cost of Rs 350 crore. This will be the first plant of its kind in the world and Shah said that it will become operational within a year. The plant will have the capacity to manufacture two lakh bottles of 500 ml each per day and the Union Minister said that each bottle will be equivalent to one bag of conventional granular DAP.
He said that nano DAP will bring about a huge change in the agricultural sector and fertiliser subsidy regime as he said that the liquid nano DAP manufactured by the IFFCO will cut India’s DAP imports by six crore bags (of 50 kg each) of conventional granular DAP and India will move a few more steps towards becoming self-sufficient in fertilisers.
“This will save approximately Rs 10,000 crore towards fertiliser subsidy,” said Shah, adding that the savings will increase the agricultural budget.
Incidentally, the IFFCO has already started marketing liquid nano urea. The nano fertilisers are amenable to precision applications like foliar application through spraying and better delivery to root-systems through micro-irrigation techniques.
The IFFCO says that these new liquid fertilisers have better use efficiency compared to the broadcasting method used for applying conventional granular urea and DAP. Shah said that precision application of chemical fertilisers will mitigate adverse impact on soil health.
Shah also praised IFFCO for training youths for operating drones for spraying nano fertilisers on farmers’ crops and appealed farmers to convert their PACS to multi-purpose PACS under the new bylaws for taking up a range of new activities.
Amit Shah’s push for new green revolution
Shah said that making available to farmers a required quantity of fertilisers at “proper” prices will certainly lead to the welfare of farmers and added that there is a need for a second green revolution in the country.
“I believe that this country, under the leadership of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, needs a green revolution one more time. But let this green revolution be of a different kind. Its objective should not be production only. When I am talking about the need for a new green revolution, I mean that the dimension of that new green revolution should be showing the world the path of natural farming — a green revolution led by natural farming,” Shah said.
Shah said that in the past, people were dependent on imports of wheat and rice to meet their demand for cereals but India has today become “atmanirbhar (selfsufficient)” in matters of food grains. “Today, thanks to the toil of our scientists, concerted efforts by successive governments and, in the end, the scientific approach of Prime Minister Modi over the past nine years, India has become atmanirbhar in the matter of foodgrains,” he said.
Shah, who himself has served as the chairman of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, said that the objectives of the new green revolution should be increasing per acre of yield at lower cultivation costs by combining new high-yielding varieties of seeds, precise application of fertilisers and natural farming practices.
He said the objectives of the new green revolution should also be to add value to farmers’ produce through cooperative movement and then market such organic agricultural products across the world through cooperative societies.
“There is a need for a kind of new green revolution which facilitates per acre yields and value addition so that farmers get higher rates for their produce. This green revolution has to achieve the goal of marketing our farmers’ organic products across the world and bringing the riches to India,” he said.
