Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Minister of State for Planning (IC) and Chemicals & Fertilizers Rao Inderjit Singh, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha by Md. Nadimul Haque on March 23, 2018, on awareness about crop nutrition among farmers and the steps taken by Government to promote value added fertilizers or specialty nutrients in the country, informed that in order to encourage the balanced use of fertilizer, the Government of India is encouraging the use of fortified fertilisers and so far 25 fortified fertilisers have been incorporated in the Fertilizer (Control) Order (FCO), 1985.
The Minister also informed that the Government is encouraging the use of customised fertilisers. They are soil specific, crop specific and area specific. So far, the Government of India has notified 34 customised fertilisers for around 100 districts of the states namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for crops namely paddy, Wheat, Oil Palm, Sugarcane, Chilli and Potato.
Further, giving reply to a question on whether Government provides subsidy on any of the value added fertilisers, Singh informed that any variant of subsidised P&K fertilisers covered under Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) policy and are fortified / coated with Boron and Zinc, as provided under FCO, is eligible for subsidy, according to a PIB release.
Informing the House about the steps taken by the Government to increase awareness about crop nutrition among the farmers, Singh said that the Government of India is promoting the use of fertilisers on soil test based recommendation by implementing a Soil Health Card Scheme. The Soil Health Card not only provides the soil fertility status, but also recommends the dose of fertiliser to be applied on a particular crop.