IFFCO and IIT-Delhi sign pact for joint research

The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited’s (IFFCO) research & development unit — Nano Biotechnology Research Centre (NBRC) — signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi for “research consultancy, knowledge transfer and collaborative projects”.

“The collaboration emphasises on focused joint research through sharing laboratories of IIT-Delhi and IFFCO and providing research consultancy,” IIT-D said in a statement.

The MoU was signed on July 20. “It will facilitate advanced research in the Area of Nano Technology for futuristic applications. IFFCO scientists and engineers will work with academic research faculty and scholars of IIT-Delhi in addressing challenging agricultural and environmental problems to find an innovative solution,” the institute said.

Speaking about the pact, IFFCO Managing Director U S Awasthi said, “At IFFCO, we always look forward to adopting new technologies so that we can add value to the farmer at ground level. We also believe in creating sustainable innovative solutions to reduce the input cost of agriculture and farming and hence increase the income of farmers and that is the reason we were able to create World’s 1st nano urea liquid at IFFCO. We are also committed to sustainable agriculture and look for opportunities to create new solutions for sustainable farming to reduce environmental pollution.”

IIT-D Director V Ramgopal Rao welcomed the initiative and said, “Impetus to research and innovations will help in achieving the modern agriculture system…beneficial for farmers of the country.”

IIT-D Dean (Corporate Relations) Anurag S Rathore said, “It’s a matter of pride that this collaboration with IIT-Delhi will benefit farmers immensely…looking forward to some engaging work in the research areas like nano technology and material science, chemical engineering, agriculture technologies, environmental science and technology, rural development, data science, nano-bio interface and many more in due course of time.”

IFFCO’s nano urea liquid was developed at NBRC in Kalol. A 500ml bottle of it is supposed to replace “at least one bag of conventional urea” thus reducing the input cost for farmers.