Consultative Committee meeting of MPs on Neem Coated Urea

MUMBAI: The Consultative Committee meeting of the Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers was held in Mumbai today. The subject for today’s meeting was Neem Coated Urea. The Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers,  Ananth Kumar, chaired the meeting. It was attended by the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers,  Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, and  Members Dr K C patel, Prof K V Thomas,  Rahul Ramesh Shelwale,  Sudheer Gupta,  Virendra Singh,  Kahkashan Perween,  Mohd. Ali Khan and  Ramnath Thakur. The officers of the Department of Fertilizers were also present.

The members were apprised about the status of Neem Coated Urea production. The New Urea Policy, 2015 of Government of India is aimed at maximising indigenous urea production and promoting energy efficiency in existing plants. The Policy has led to an additional production of 20 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) from the previous year and the total production of Urea during the year 2015-16 was 245 LMT ie the highest ever Urea production in the country. In May, 2015, Government had made mandatory the entire production of Urea with neem coating. The entire indigenous Urea and the imported Urea is being Neem coated wef 01.09.2015 and 01.12.2015 respectively.

Neem coated Urea is expected to result in the reduction of consumption of Urea and will also curb diversion of Urea for non agricultural purposes.  Members were also apprised about the various other benefits of Neem Coated Urea.

Ananth Kumar said that in the last 6 months there has not been any case of non availability of Urea in the states. He also apprised the  Members about the status of revival of FACT, Ramagundem and Barauni plants.