New Delhi: Minister of State for Planning (IC) and Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, in a written reply to a question by Shri Md. Nadimul Haque on awareness about crop nutrition among farmers and the steps have been taken by Government to promote value added fertilizers or specialty nutrients in the country, in Rajya Sabha today, informed that in order to encourage the balanced use of fertilizer, the Government of India is encouraging the use of fortified fertilizers and so far 25 fortified fertilizers have been incorporated in the Fertilizer (Control) Order (FCO), 1985.
Also, the Minister informed that the Government is encouraging the use of customized fertilizers. These are soil specific, crop specific and area specific. So far, the Government of India has notified 34 customized fertilizers for around 100 districts of the states namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for crops namely Rice, Wheat, Oil Palm, Sugarcane, Chilli and Potato.
Further, giving reply to the question on whether Government provides subsidy on any of the value added fertilizers, Shri Singh informed that any variant of subsidized P&K fertilizers covered under Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) policy and are fortified / coated with Boron and Zinc, as provided under FCO, is eligible for subsidy. Such fortified / coated fertilizers will attract an additional per tonne subsidy to encourage their application along with primary nutrients as per the rates mentioned below:
| S. No. | Nutrients for fortification as per FCO | Additional subsidy (Rs/MT) for fortified / coated fertilizers |
| 1 | Boron (B) | 300 |
| 2 | Zinc (Zn) | 500 |
Informing the House about the steps taken by Government to increase awareness about crop nutrition among the farmers, Shri Singh said that the Government of India is promoting the use of fertilizers 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 fertilizer to be applied for a particular crop.
