NEW DELHI: The concept of ‘One Nation-One Fertilizer’ (ONOF) will be implemented from October 2. As part of the initiative, crop nutrients -- urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) or muriate of potash (MOP) will be sold under a single brand name, ‘Bharat’ irrespective of the manufacturing companies under the Centre’s fertilizer subsidy scheme, ‘Pradhanmantri Bharatiya Janurvarak Pariyojana’ (PM-BJP).
Conveying the decision of the Government, the ministry of chemicals and fertilizer has issued directions to all companies to use the new brand name --Bharat--and logo of the subsidy scheme on the bags. The office memorandum issued on Wednesday stated that the ministry had decided to implement ONOF the single brand name for urea, DAP, MPO and Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPKs) would Bharat Urea, Bharat DAP, Bharat MON and Bharat NPK for all fertilizers companies. Placement of brand name, logo and details of the manufacturing companies has also been explained in the note according to which the logo indicating fertilizer subsidy scheme will be used on fertilizer bags on one side.
New brand name and logo with subsidy title, Pradhanmantri Bharatiya Janurvarak Pariyojana, will occupy two-thirds of the printable area on the bag and one-third will be used for putting details of the fertilizer companies and its symbol with other information as per the rules.
According to the Government, a single brand name will help in the reduction of freight charges due to stopping of crisscross movement of fertilizers, reducing the transit time, and ensuring the availability of fertilizers throughout the year irrespective of brand preferences. It will also stop the diversion of urea for industrial purposes, said officials. “Farmers prefer to purchase urea of his choice.
If a certain brand is not available, he doesn’t buy it even though urea is the same. And there is a hue and cry that the urea of a specific brand is not in the market so one of the reasons behind the idea of ONOF is to prevent these things. The Government gives a huge subsidy on these products which is more than maximum retail price, therefore, subsidy scheme will also be mentioned on the bag,” said an official.