• Nitrous oxide is one of the greenhouse gases that greatly contribute to the

increasing global warming. In fact, it has a high “global warming potential”,

which is around 310 times more than that of carbon dioxide (Scottish
Environment Protection Agency, 2016).
• Globally, about 58% of nitrous oxide emissions come from various
agricultural activities, such as fertilizers, irrigated productions (Lam, Suter
and Davies, 2015).
• Natural products, especially medicinal and aromatic plant materials could
be potential nitrification inhibitors for increasing fertilizer N use efficiency
(Kiran and Patra, 2013).
• Dicyandiamide (DCD) is a chemical known to be an effective nitrification
inhibitor and also known to suppress N2O emission in many agro-
ecosystems (Lan, Han and Cai, 2013).
• The main composition of Dicyandiamide (DCD) is proteins involved in
development and death of cells, which is commonly found in different
plants (Tenhaken, Doerks and Bork, 2005).
• Kakawate (Gliricidia sepium) is a leguminous plant rich in alkaloids, phenols
and flavonoids, is a potential source of compounds possessing beneficial
biological activity (Sankar, 2013). The plant proved its medicinal potential
for it is used as an anti-scabies, anti-pseudomonas, anti-bacterial and anti-
microbial (StuartxChange, 2015). The plant is also known for the strong
aroma that it gives off.
• Chemical composition of Kakawate (Gliricidia sepium) leaves yielded 20.69
crude proteins in 100g (StuartxChange, 2015).
• The leaf extract of Kakawate (Gliricidia sepium) also yielded 43.59 nitrogen-
free and 92.31 of organic matter (StuartxChange, 2015).