Professor Dr Md Javed Hossain Khan, a nanotechnology researcher at Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST), has been granted a patent for nano urea, a fertiliser he developed. The Bangladesh Patent Office approved the patent on Sunday, 25 October. He applied in 2021 and waited five years and two months for it.
By the researcher's figures, the cost difference with conventional urea is large. The government imports urea at Tk 90 to 92 a kilogram, so fertilising one bigha now costs about Tk 4,200 including the subsidy. Professor Javed says nano urea for the same land costs just Tk 230, a saving of about 82 percent.
Nano urea is applied with a sprayer. After long research it has also succeeded in field use, the researcher says. Applied properly, he says, it can raise the efficiency of urea use, cut waste and production costs and possibly raise yields, while easing the pressure that overuse of fertiliser puts on the environment.
"We work with the country's soil, its agriculture and its farmers' interests in mind," Professor Javed said. He has run his own laboratory at JUST since 2013; the Nano-Bio and Advanced Materials Engineering (NAM) Lab he founded works on nanotechnology and advanced materials. He was elected a fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences in 2025.
Researchers in the field say the patent opens the way to further development, technology transfer and commercial production. They add that it can help cut farmers' costs and spread environment-friendly farm technology only if proper scientific testing, verification of its performance in the field and effective collaboration with industry bring it into use on farms.
Reported by Samakal's Jashore correspondent.
Photo: Rice field by the bypass in Jashore, George achik / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Samakal
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