Types of Granular Urea – Plants need important elements in order to help them grow well and produce according to farmers’ expectations.

And one of the important elements that make plants grow and produce well is the element of nitrogen.

But, although nitrogen is the most abundant element in the air, plants cannot get their own nitrogen directly from the air.

Types of Granular Urea

As we stated above, urea fertilizer is divided by two types, the prills and granular, with the granular urea further divided into different types.

Here is the explanation!

1. Urea Balls

The first one is the urea balls, and as its name implies it is a type of granular fertilizer that has the physical shape of a small ball.

This fertilizer is designed to provide a high response to plant needs by releasing nitrogen slowly.

The main advantage of urea ball fertilizer is its ability to bind nitrogen firmly to soil particles, allowing it to be absorbed more efficiently by plant roots.

Pros:

Consistent nitrogen release: Urea ball fertilizer is designed to release nitrogen gradually, providing a consistent supply of nutrients to plants throughout the growth period. This helps in the maintenance of plant health and increased crop yields.
Efficient nitrogen absorption: The nitrogen that is firmly bound by soil particles minimizes nitrogen loss to the environment, increasing the fertilizer effectiveness and reducing the need for additional applications.

Cons:

Limited application: Although generally can give a positive impact to the plants and crop, the urea ball fertilizers are not yet able to be applied in a wider setting. This is because of several reasons such as high production cost, limited resources and complex technology needed.

Urea ball fertilizer is usually used as a supplementary fertilizer to replace the loss of nitrogen from the previous application of urea prill.

It acts as an important addition to ensure that the crop continues to get the necessary nitrogen supply after the initial growth phase.

With a more focused use on specific needs and as a supplement to urea prill fertilizer, urea ball fertilizer offers benefits in better crop nutrient management, although it has not been fully adopted widely in agricultural practices.

2. Urea Super Granule (USG)

Urea Super Granule (USG) is a type of urea fertilizer that is similar to urea prill in terms of composition, but differs in size.

USG has a larger spherical shape compared to prill urea. This larger urea granule is designed to provide additional advantages of efficiency.

Pros:

Increase in productivity: A research shows that the use of USG can increase the production of a crop of up to 3,4% to 20,3% compared to the use of urea prilled. It can be caused by a more controlled and efficient nitrogen release from the USD that gives a more even and continuous nutrition.
Efficiency: USG is designed to provide a more stable and gradual supply of nitrogen. The larger granule size allows for decreased application frequency and reduces the risk of nitrogen loss due to leaching and volatilization. This can increase fertilizer efficiency and reduce the need for additional applications.

Cons:

Cost: One of the main problems of using USG is the high production cost. The process of making bigger urea granules requires a specialized technology that is more costly than urea prilled. The higher cost and a limited equipment of making USG also affects its availability.

Also Read: “Types of Urea Fertilizers“

3. Briquette Urea

Urea briquettes are a type of urea fertilizer made from urea prills that are compacted into a flat, disc-like shape.

It is a more advanced version of Urea Super Granule (USG) with its fragile and breakable form that makes it easier for this fertilizer to dissolve in the soil and be absorbed by plants.

Urea briquettes have several advantages, such as more even distribution of fertilizer and ease of handling. However, there are also some challenges.

Since these briquettes can be sticky and breakable, it can sometimes make application a bit troublesome and can lead to wastage.

Also, the process of making these briquettes is quite expensive, which can make it pricier compared to urea prilled.

4. Urea Tablet

As its name implies, urea tablets are a variant of urea fertilizers that have been compacted under high pressure, so they are tablet-shaped instead of the usual round shape.

This fertilizer offers several advantages over urea prilled such as 2-3 times more efficiency, which means it uses less fertilizers to achieve the same results.

Other than that, the use of urea tablets can improve the production of crops by up to 20,87% which is quite significant if you ask me. asaas

In addition to fertilizer efficiency, urea tablets also offer advantages in terms of labor and cost efficiency.

With simpler application and reduced frequency of fertilization, costs and manpower incurred can be minimized.

In addition, the use of urea tablets can help reduce the number of weeds and suppress micro-pollution often caused by prill urea fertilizers.

Overall, urea tablets offer a more efficient and environmentally friendly solution to fertilization, with added benefits in terms of weed and micro-pollution reduction.

Also Read: “Types of Fertilizers“

So there you have it! The types of granular urea that we’ve prepared just for you!

Did you know, because of its safety and wide range of uses, the urea fertilizer is one of the mandatory products to be certified by the SNI certification?

The SNI certification itself is a type of product approval that regulates the quality and safety of many if not all of the products and/or services in Indonesia.

The goal of this certification is to give a standard for those products so it can also give peace of mind to Indonesian customers.

As for the regulation and standard of urea fertilizer itself is clearly stated in SNI 2801-2010.