Abstract
Organic fertilizers increase the quality and yield of agricultural crops in ways similar to inorganic fertilizers. As the price of synthetic fertilizers continues to increase, manure is becoming a more valuable and less expensive source of nitrogen fertilizer. Crop producers are increasingly buying manure from livestock producers or adding livestock to their crop operations so that they can incorporate manure into their practices. On-manufactured nitrogen fertilizers are increasingly being used as a means to reduce vulnerability to the price changes in fossil fuels. The most common alternatives to non manufactured nitrogen fertilizers identified include green manures and integrating livestock into crop production. These practices, combined with other techniques such as conservation tillage, have shown to greatly decrease the need for synthetic fertilizers by increasing nutrient efficiency and improving soil health. Organic nutrient source improves the physical, chemical and biological quality of soil besides providing both macro and micro nutrients to crops. The improvement in qualities include improvement in soil structure, water holding capacity, electrical conductivity, bulk density, lesser soil erosion, preventing the leaching of nutrients and provide nutrients to soil micro flora. Keywords : Compost, Organic fertilizer; Vermicompost DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/12-4-02 Publication date: February 28 th 2021
Highlights
The role of organic materials as nutrient sources is the biological processes of decomposition, which involve the biochemical breakdown of dead organic tissue into its inorganic constituent forms, primarily through the action of microorganisms
History of organic nutrients in soil Several factors contribute to reducing the fertility status and quality of soil in Ethiopia
Applying organic materials over several seasons results in increased yields, because the tannin and lignin content slows their decomposition and has a long-term effect on nutrient availability and reported an increase in maize grain yield when low doses of N and P fertilizers were applied with different organic materials such as farmyard and compost, as compared with the control treatment .The combined use of organic materials and N and P fertilizers gave similar grain yield when compared to the recommended rate of N and P fertilizers (110/20 kg/ha) [21]
Summary
The role of organic materials as nutrient sources is the biological processes of decomposition, which involve the biochemical breakdown of dead organic tissue into its inorganic constituent forms, primarily through the action of microorganisms. The process by which essential nutrient elements in unavailable organic forms are converted into their inorganic forms that are available for use by growing plant is known as mineralization. It is during decomposition of organic materials in soils that SOM is formed and nutrients are released. Some constraints in the organic fertilizers sector derive from their legal definitions and the establishment of clear quality standards, which are important for trade at global level This holds true for a specific group of products that are defined as bio-stimulants or growth enhancers, metabolic enhancers [1]. In similar way according to [19] lack of nitrogen results in poor growth and slow growth, but the excess use of nitrogen results in delayed maturity and low quality of leaf
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