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Mahesh

15/07/22 14:12 PM IST

Fertilizers Flying Squad

In News 
  • Department of fertilizers has instituted a dedicated officer known as a ‘fertilizer flying squad’ to check any diversion, black marketing or adulteration of fertilizers.
Reason for Appointment 
  • About 10 lakh tonnes (the worth around 6000 cr) of agriculture-grade urea (despite the need for coating) is getting diverted for industrial use every year.
  • The subsidized urea is getting diverted mainly to industries.
  • The agriculture-grade urea is neem-coated while technical-grade urea is not. The neem-coating is removed through some chemical process and then the urea is used for industrial purposes
  • India’s annual domestic demand for urea is around 350 lakh tonnes, of which 260 lakh tonnes are locally produced while the remaining is imported.
  • The government’s annual fertiliser subsidy bill is likely to be around Rs 2.5 lakh crore during this fiscal because of high international prices.
  • There is an annual requirement of around 13-14 lakh tonnes of technical-grade urea for industrial usage, of which only 1.5 lakh tonnes are produced in the country.
Uses 
  • Urea is used in various industries such as resin/glue, plywood, crockery, moulding powder, cattle feed, dairy and industrial mining explosives.

Source - The Hindu 

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