Reducing Urea use by up to 50% with SOM

This author has written this note after reading a report in the times of India today that the government is hoping to reduce consumption of urea fertilizer by about ten percent by reducing size of urea bags by ten percent.

However, With SOM the urea utilization can come down from 25% to 50%, reduce costs, improves soil as well as yields. This is an original idea of the author, not published before, and the terminology SOM is his own standing for Semi Organic Mix. He is publishing it here online in public interest.

SOM Fertilizer

SOM fertilizers are prepared by thoroughly mixing together in industrial mixers a half and half mix by weight of dry compost and urea. A farmer may use more of the quantity by weight to get similar nitrogen yields but in that case also there is about 25% saving in urea.

The additional use of compost improves the soil and the embedding of urea particles in compost slows the release of nitrogen in soil so as to improve plant health and yield. If the farmer uses the same weight as urea then saving of urea would be up to 50%

Are there any disadvantages of this method? There is one but it is not significant. The SOM fertilizer would decompose nitrogen in the urea over time due to presence of bacteria especially in presence of moisture reducing its shelf life. It is advisable that such fertilizers are prepared every planting season and not carried over to the next to minimize this problem.