 "Fertiliser council ICFNR to adopt international best practices in research")
Indian Council for Fertilizer and Nutrient Research (ICFNR), which was established last month and aims to operate on the lines of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), will adopt international best practices in research to ensure farmers get good quality fertilisers at affordable rates.
“Wellbeing of the common man depends upon food Security, which in turn, is contingent on the fertiliser security of our farmers. Areas of operation of ICFNR include promotion of research in area of fertiliser manufacturing technology, use of raw material and innovation in fertiliser products, eco-friendly micro nutrients and pesticide coated slow release fertilisers, bio-fertilisers & organic fertilisers and their derivatives,” said Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, while chairing the first meeting of governing council for ICFNR in New Delhi on Tuesday.
India is the second largest consumer of fertilisers in the world after China. Indian fertiliser requirement is largely dependent on imports - around 25 percent in case of urea, around 50 percent in case of natural gas (feedstock), more than 50 percent in case of phosphatic and around 100 percent for potassic fertilisers. India is also dependent on foreign players for sourcing of technology & licensing and technological up-gradation. Hence, it is of prime importance to have an indigenous research environment in India to achieve food security for the common man, the Minister added.
Though there are a number of private companies & institutions which are doing research in the field, there is hardly any dedicated national research institute which is exclusively devoted to fertiliser and nutrient research, indigenising the available technology and developing innovative fertiliser products to suit Indian requirement. Hence, government decided to set up ICFNR, set up under the administrative control of Department of Fertilizers (DoF), to promotion of research in fertiliser sector
ICFNR will have a governing council and an executive committee for monitoring the progress in the field. The governing council is chaired by the Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and executive committee is chaired by Secretary, Fertilizers. While governing council will meet every six months, executive council will meet every quarter.
ICFNR is located at National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) office, Noida. NFL will also provide secretarial assistance including staff for ICFNR. For the initial funding, seed money from the three fertilizer PSUs, viz NFL, RCF and FAGMIL will be provided on annual basis. Subsequently, Government of India will provide budgetary support and the ICFNR will be funded by Department of Fertilizers through plan fund allocation for which a separate plan head will be created.