Indian Biogas Association apprised on the latest amendment (dated 1st June 2021) in fertiliser Control Order (FCO) from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare (MoAFW), which now recognises the ‘Fermented organic liquid fertiliser’ as a form of organic fertiliser.
Just last Year, the solid fraction of the produced slurry from biogas plants was incorporated as ‘Fermented organic Manure’ in the FCO. Now with the latest notification from the Ministry on recognition of the liquid fraction as well, it would legally facilitate production and sales of organic manure (in both solid and liquid fraction) from biogas/CBG plants.This in turn would catalyse the process of setting up new biogas/CBG projects. Investors will be able to realise better returns upon fairly monetizing the produced digestate, a byproduct of all biogas/ CBG plants.
It’s also worthwhile to note that digestate produced from any biogas/CBG plant is an excellent manure for crops. It also improves the overall soil health, which has been deteriorating rapidly due to rampant and imprudent usage of chemical fertilisers.
Some of the salient benefits of using digestate as organic fertiliser are: improves soil’s physical and biological properties, supplements nutrient requirement for the crop, improves carbon content of soil, augments nutrient mobilization rate in soil, increases microbiological activity, improves water holding capacity, improves crop productivity, and most importantly optimises usage of chemical fertilisers strictly on supplementary nutrional need basis.
It would be fair to anticipate that this declaration from the Ministry shall aid realization of the target (setting up of around 5000 CBG plants over a period of 5 years, set by MoPNG under its SATAT scheme launched in October 2018.
