The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a USD$30 million loan with India-based Smartchem Technologies Limited (STL) to finance capital expenditure and research and development of enhanced-efficiency specialty fertilizers as well as investments to promote energy efficiency, health and safety.
In addition, an accompanying technical assistance grant will focus on improving the climate resilience of up to 4,000 smallholder farmers through building their soil management and financial literacy skills.
“ADB’s financial assistance will help us to further improve our enhanced efficiency specialty fertilizer business including applied R&D and grass-root farmer training initiatives,” said STL chairman and managing director S. C. Mehta. “It is encouraging to have our efforts towards crop and soil specific fertilizer systems and improvements to nutrient use efficiency and balanced soil nutrition, validated by international partners like ADB.”
Formed in 2015, STL is a subsidiary of Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, one of India’s leading fertilizer and chemical businesses. The group is headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, and has four manufacturing facilities across the country.
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