Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah inaugurated IFFCO's Nano DAP (Liquid) Plant at Kalol in Gandhinagar, Gujarat today. Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya and many other dignitaries were present on this occasion.

Addressing the inauguration program as the chief guest, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah greeted the countrymen on Dussehra and said that Dussehra is celebrated as the day of victory of good over evil in our culture. He said that this is the day when Lord Shri Ram had killed Ravana and Mahishasura was also killed on this day. He added that today is also the birth anniversary of the great freedom fighter Captain Lakshmi Sehgal of Azad Hind Fauj. She, along with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, bravely led the freedom struggle.

Shri Amit Shah said that today is a very important day for the entire Western India including Gujarat as IFFCO's Nano DAP (Liquid) plant has been inaugurated at Kalol in Gandhinagar district. Minister of Cooperation, while congratulating the IFFCO team for taking India first in the world in Nano Urea and Nano DAP, said that India is an agricultural country blessed with large and fertile cultivable land and climate suitable for three to four crops, a combination not to be found anywhere else in the world. He said that India is the only country where in the last 75 years we have developed such a system that farmers can do farming every month.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that it is the responsibility of the cooperative institutions of India to bridge the gap between the requirement and production of food grains in the country. He said that after ten years, when the list of biggest experiments done in agricultural sector would be prepared, IFFCO's Nano Urea and Nano DAP will find a place in it. Shri Shah said that the need of the hour is to reduce the use of urea and move towards natural farming but at the same time there is also a need to increase production. Shri Shah said that Nano Urea is sprayed not on the ground but on the plants and due to this, there is a zero possibility of destruction of natural elements or the earthworms present in the soil. If all the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) use Nano Urea and Nano DAP in partnership with IFFCO then very soon our land will move towards natural farming.

Union Minister of Cooperation said that IFFCO has set up pan-India plants in a very modern manner. There can be no greater example of Make in India than this. IFFCO's Kalol unit will produce about 42 lakh bottles of green technology based Nano DAP which will definitely benefit the farmers. He said that 60 percent of the people in our country are dependent on agriculture for earning a living and 60 percent of the country's land is suitable for agriculture, but for years both farmers and agriculture were ignored.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that in 2014, before the formation of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the budget of the Government of India for farmers was Rs. 22,000 crores, while Prime Minister Modi has increased this budget to Rs. 1,22,000 crores by the financial year 2023-24. He said that this increase of Rs. 1 lakh crore in the budget has also yielded results. In the year 2013-14, a loan of Rs. 7 lakh crores was extended to the farmers, whereas in 2023-24, Narendra Modi's government provided loan of Rs. 19 lakh crores to the farmers. He added that earlier the production was 323 million tonnes, and now the production has increased to 665 million tonnes. In the year 2013-14, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy was Rs. 1310 per quintal, which has been increased to Rs. 2203 per quintal by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, which is an increase of about 68 percent. He said that the MSP of wheat was Rs. 1400 per quintal, which has been increased to Rs. 2275 per quintal. The MSP of millet was Rs. 1250 per quintal and today it is Rs. 2500 per quintal, which is a 100 percent increase.

Minister of Cooperation said that after Covid pandemic, when the prices of fertilizers increased in the world market, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi did not pass any burden onto the farmers. In the year 2013-14, the total subsidy on fertilizer was Rs. 73 thousand crores and in the year 2023-24 this subsidy has been increased to Rs. 2 lakh 55 thousand crores by the government. Shri Shah urged the top officials of IFFCO to compile a book on the journey of Nano Urea and DAP so far. He said that three factories have become operational in Kalol, Phulpur and Ambla and so far 8 crore bottles have come in the market and it is going to be expanded to 18 crore bottles in the coming days. He said that nanotechnology is going to bring a big change in plant nutrition and it is economical and full of nutrients. This also leads to savings of about 8 to 20 percent.

Shri Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Cooperation has formed two co-operative institutions for seed conservation and export of agricultural produce. He urged the IFFCO management to share its experience to make both these institutions the best institutions in the world like IFFCO. He said that through these two institutions, a revolution has to be brought by changing the crop pattern in the country and for this purpose, IFFCO should also come forward. Shri Shah said that the Ministry of Cooperation has tried to make the cooperative sector vibrant for the farmers once again by taking 57 different initiatives, and IFFCO has made a big contribution in it.

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RK/ASH