The central government has commissioned a study titled ‘Impact of Neem Coated Urea on production, Productivity and Soil Health in India’. The information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Sudarshan Bhagat in Rajya Sabha.
Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, will carry out the study covering six states namely, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Punjab.
The study is expected to be completed by October, 2016.
Entire quantity of domestically manufactured urea is now neem coated. Neem Coated Urea is being promoted to regulate urea use, enhance its availability and reduce the cost of fertilizers application.
Fertilizer companies in the cooperative sector such as IFFCO and KRIBHCO were among the first companies to have launched neem-coated urea earning accolades from everybody including the Prime Minister.
IFFCO last year signed an MoU with Forest Research Institute (FRI) under which, FRI will come up with fast-growing and high-yielding varieties of neem trees to produce 100 per cent neem-coated urea.
Launching a campaign “Plant a Neem tree” IFFCO has begun planting this tree across the country. Its MD Dr U S Awasthi posted some photographs of the same on social media from the Sirsa district of Haryana.
