Firm introduces liquid Ureafertiliser, says cost-efficient
State-owned Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) says the introduction of liquid Urea fertiliser or Nano Urea on the market will provide cost-efficient and high nutritious alternative that could boost crop output.
The firm’s director of commercial services Ali Chioko said in an interview yesterday that a 500-millilitre (ml) bottle of Nano Urea is equivalent to a 50-kilogramme (kg) bag of granular Urea fertiliser.
He said this means that liquid Urea is cheaper when distribution or transport costs are factored in because of low mass and volume.
SFFRFM will be selling the product at 10 percent below the market price of granular fertilisers. A 50 kilogramme (kg) bag of granular fertiliser costs about K90 000, which means Nano Urea could be sold at K81 000 per 500ml bottle.
Chioko said the fertiliser is manufactured in India, but have signed a deal with a Zambia-based firm to bring the product in Malawi on behalf of SFFRFM.
He said: “We are hopeful that we will sustain it because in the long run, we will be importing directly from the manufacturer not through the middle-men.
“The agreement that we have with the supplier is that they will initially give us 5 004 bottles and we should be able to bring in more once we finish these stocks.”
This liquid fertiliser is applied on leaves of the crops through spraying the mixture of between two to four milliliters of Nano Urea and one litre of water in various stages of crop development.
“We will be going around training farmers on the application of this liquid Urea fertiliser,” said Chioko.
In an interview yesterday, Agventure Resources Limited Malawi country director Bhupender Singh, whose firm is the official distributor of the Nano Urea produced by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited, confirmed having reached an agreement with SFFRFM.
“It will be the first time to introduce this fertiliser in Malawi, but in Zambia, Kenya and other eastern African countries, it is doing well with farmers now benefiting from its organic elements apart from affordability,” he said.
Agricultural extension services expert Leonard Chimwaza, while commending the use of liquid bio-fertilisers because of their higher nutrition value content, said there is need for SFFRFM to intensify awareness on the application process considering that most farmers are only conversant with traditional granular fertilisers.
“Such a form of education is critical because if the company expects to sell the fertiliser this growing season, farmers have to be aware, especially those that have been using granular fertilisers,” he said.
SFFRFM is the sole distributor of the commodity in the country.
