Evaluation of Granule Size Indices in Commercially Available Urea Fertilizers in India
Vasu Kumar *
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (Maharashtra), India.
Mrudulata M. Deshmukh
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (Maharashtra), India.
Pradeep Rajan
CSIR-CMERI Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery, Ludhiana (Punjab), India.
S. K. Thakare
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (Maharashtra), India.
S. H. Thakare
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (Maharashtra), India.
A. V. Gajakos
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (Maharashtra), India.
Chanchal Gupta
CSIR-CMERI Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery, Ludhiana (Punjab), India.
S. A. Kanade
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (Maharashtra), India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Urea is the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer in India, yet limited information is available on the granule size characteristics of commercially available products from different manufacturers. Granule size plays an important role in fertilizer handling, metering behavior, and field application uniformity. In the present study, urea samples were collected from ten major Indian manufacturers, and their particle size characteristics were evaluated using percentile-based granule size indices, including d5, d16, d84, and d90. The d5 values ranged from 0.394 to 0.861 mm, d16 ranged from 0.650 to 0.943 mm, d84 ranged from 1.311 to 1.484 mm, and d90 ranged from 1.359 to 1.565 mm. One-way ANOVA showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) for all granule size indices among the ten manufacturers, and Tukey post-hoc analysis indicated a high number of significantly different pairwise comparisons for each index. These findings highlight differences in size variability among Indian urea brands.
Keywords: Urea fertilizer, granule size indices, particle size distribution, percentile diameters