The Pune-based Neem Mission is on a mammoth mission to spread the information on the versatility of neem. The mission founder-director, CS Ketkar while admitting that there is no coordinated effort on basic issues, said no information was available on the the size of the market or the demand for seed, etc. He pointed out that the last scientific count was undertaken in the 1960s by the All India Non-edible Oil Industries Association, an organisation which has since become defunct.

Researchers the world over admit that neem could be the harbinger of the new generation of soft pesticides that will allow crop protection in a benign manner (`Neem: a tree for solving global problems', a report of an ad hoc panel of the Board on Science andtechnology for International Development, National Research Council, Washington DC.). The report estimates the number of neem trees in the Indian sub continent in the 1980s to be around 18 million trees.

The major applications for neem by-products are in soap, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, insecticides, manure and contraceptive industries. The history of its rise in popularity as a fertiliser came about when it began to be used as a substitute for edible oil in soaps. However, the disposal of the bulky oil-cake posed a problem to the small scale sector, priced as it was against the cheap mutton tallow imports from the US under PL 480.

For every 100 kgs of seed crushed, 20 kgs of oil is extracted, while the balance 80kgs is bulky neem cake.