Q. Why does the Government of India promote the use of ‘Neem-coated Urea’ in agriculture?

Release of Neem oil in the soil increases nitrogen fixation by the soil microorganisms
Neem coating slows down the rate of dissolution of urea in the soil
Nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas, is not at all released into atmosphere by crop fields
It is a combination of a weedicide and a fertilizer for particular crops

Answer: (b) Neem coating slows down the rate of dissolution of urea in the soil

Urea which is necessary for the development of plants is an important supplier of nitrogen.
But only 30-40 per cent of nitrogen present in the area is utilized by crops and the rest gets degraded in various stages.
When ordinary urea is applied, it gets converted to ammonium carbamate.
Some of this gets converted to ammonia gas in what is called ammonia volatilisation.
About 8-10 per cent of nitrogen is lost during volatilisation.
Neem has properties that check nitrogen loss at each stage.
It slows down the process of nitrate formation and hence excess nitrate is not available for denitrification.

Neem coated urea is created by utilising two best things available. First the urea created by technology from Air & Natural gas and second products from nature’s gift i.e. neem plant. Neem has proven Nitrification inhibition properties and hence slows down the release of nitrogen from urea and makes available nitrogen over a longer period with minimum loss of nitrogen thereby increasing nitrogen use efficiency.
Neem coated urea has been demonstrated to improve Nitrogen Use efficiency and consequently increases crop yield especially in Paddy crop in which NUE is as low as 30% and in wheat where NUE is reported around 50%.
Coating with neem oil also prevents caking of urea and also reduces the chances of powder formation during transportation & handling.
Repellent action of neem also controls many insect-pests and wild animals in fields applied with neem coated urea.