Impact of Mineral Fertilizer Integration with Farmyard Manure on Crop Yield, Nutrient Use Efficiency, and Soil Fertility in a Long-Term Trial

Abstract

Plant nutrient should be well managed to increase productivity of crop production with responsibility to protect environment. The major purposes of plant nutrient management include: (1) to budget and supply nutrients for crop production; (2) to properly utilize manure or organic byproducts; (3) to minimize agricultural nonpoint source pollution of surface and ground water resources; (4) to protect air quality by reducing nitrogen loss; and (5) to maintain or improve the physical, chemical, and biological condition of soil (NRCS and NHCP, 2006). Availability of sufficient amount of nutrients at the right place and time is an essential factor to maximize crop yield per area. Plant nutrient management is defined as application of right form, quantity, and ratios of nutrient at a right location and growth stages of crop to increase yield per area with a minimum nutrient loss. It is described as fertilizer best management practices, integrated plant nutrient management, code of best agricultural practices, sitespecific nutrient management, and other similar expressions (Roberts, 2010). Nutrient recycling by application of organic fertilizer is needed to replace nutrient removed by crop yield from fields in order to restore crop production potential of a soil. But application of organic fertilizer alone insufficiently increases crop yield per area because nutrient content of organic fertilizer is unbalanced and if it is applied in a large quantity to balance nutrient supply the loss will increase. Therefore integrated plant nutrient management (IPNM) can minimize the problem. IPNM is application of mineral fertilizer in combination with locally available organic fertilizer to maintain soil fertility and to balance nutrient supply in order to increase crop yield per area. It is one of the best practices of plant nutrient management to take into consideration mineral fertilizer integration with organic sources of the plant nutrients to optimize social, economic, and environmental benefits of crop production. The main objectives of the IPNM are: (i) to maintain or enhance soil productivity, (ii) to improve stock of plant nutrient in the soil; (iii) to limit nutrient loss to the environment by improvement of nutrient use efficiency (FAO, 1998). One of the most important challenges to continuously satisfy growing food demand is maximization of crop production on limited areas of agricultural land. Sustainable production of crop requires adequate supply of plant-available nutrients to support crop growth and that the nutrients removed in the harvested material or in the exported product of livestock