Lanka imports nano-fertiliser from India despite local scientist discovering the concept 10 years ago

It is unfortunate that Sri Lanka has to import advanced nano-fertiliser from India although the Sri Lankan scientists invented it 10 years back, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura says..

Text of the media statement: “Sri Lanka is a country which was once considered as the “granary of the ancient east”; today we try to win back this status by making a paradigm shift in agricultural practices. “NANO” has become the buzz word among the people now. It’s unfortunate that we have to import advanced nano-fertiliser from India while our own scientists discovered the concept 10 years back!

 “Prof. Nilwala Kottegoda, Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and the team at Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) developed a new nano-fertiliser product in 2010 and received four US patents at a time where nano-fertiliser was new to the scientific community. Thus, the technology for the production of efficient nano-fertiliser was introduced to the world about 11 years ago from Sri Lanka. This innovation was rated as a global first by the World Intellectual Property Organisation and Prof. Kottegoda was selected as one of the nine most inventive women scientists, based on this new concept.

“In this innovation, urea molecules were anchored onto biocompatible hydroxyapatite nanoparticles thus minimising the wastage of urea as gaseous emissions and water-soluble leachates. This new solid fertiliser contains 40% of nitrogen while supplying plant-available 6% phosphorus when applied to the soil. The efficacy of the fertiliser has been tested at the farmer field level for tea and rice. The field trials suggest that the new formulation reduces 25-40% nitrogen usage with a yield improvement of up to 20 %.  The process has been scaled up to pilot-scale production.

“Prof. Kottegoda’s research team at the USJ has further developed a greener process of nano-fertiliser production that has minimum energy, water, and environmental footprint. They also have explored a method to introduce other nutrients into the same formulation thus increasing its potential as a “mother of fertilizer”. This extended innovation has already received two patents belonging to USJ.

“Commercial production of high efficiency nano-fertiliSer has not yet commenced in Sri Lanka. But a leading fertiliser manufacturing company in India, anticipating the future value of the discovery, had purchased the technology in 2013 for commercial exploitation through the Sri Lankan government. However, patent rights are retained with SLINTEC. Therefore, Sri Lanka to this day, still has production rights over this product, meaning that the potential for Sri Lanka to become a manufacturing hub for this product does exist. But it’s unfortunate, today, the Sri Lankan government has to import nano-fertiliser from India at a huge cost.

“There is no action plan yet for the production of nano-fertilisers in Sri Lanka, which are highly efficient, economically viable and environmentally friendly”, said Prof. Nilwala Kottegoda.”