The application of neem seed cake as fertilizer provides crops with various nutrients. Besides this, the neem seed cake also reduces the number of soil insect pests, fungi, bacteria and nematodes and thus protects the crop from damage caused by these organisms. Neem seed cake can also reduce alkalinity in the soil by producing organic acids when mixed with the soil. The calcium and magnesium present in neem cake assist in removing alkalinity. 

Urea, containing 46% of N (nitrogen), is often applied to crops, but less than half of this N, in the form of nitrate, is available to the crops. The rest is lost through 'leaching' or by 'volatilisation', or by surface run-off after a heavy shower. This can be reduced by blending or coating urea with neem cake. 

Urea tends to cake when it is stored, which increases during the rainy season. About 30% (and sometimes even higher, depending on the storage method) of the urea is susceptible to caking. The industry has to take back the hardened fertiliser and supply it back in the granule form. Additionally, there is a handling loss from production stage to bagging, where between 0.2 and 0.5 % of the production is lost as dust. Coating of urea granules with neem will save this additional cost and prevent loss of dust. Urea is now often coated with formaldehyde, which is carcinogenic, environmentally unsound and more expensive than neem.