Smart Fertilizer Strategy for Better Crop Production

Abstract

Food security is one of the major concerns for all developing countries of the world. Even though we had attained the highest food production with the use of new technologies, we may not able to feed the burgeoning population adequately in coming years due to stagnant crop productivity. Natural source of nutrients like organic manures and external source of nutrients, viz. fertilizers, are considered as the two eyes in plant nutrient management. Nutrient use efficiency of fertilizer is very low due to numerous pathways of losses such as leaching, denitrification, microbial immobilization, fixation and runoff. It has been estimated that around 40-70% of nitrogen, 80-90% of phosphorus, 50-70% of potassium and more than 95% of micronutrient content of applied fertilizers are lost in to the environment and results in pollution (Kanjana, 2017). Smart fertilizers like slow and controlled release fertilizers, nanofertilizers and bioformulation fertilizers are the new technologies to enhance the nutrient use efficiency their by improving crop yield in sustainable manner. The use of slow and controlled release fertilizers increase nutrient use efficiency, minimize the risks like leaf burning, water contamination and eutrophication. Nano-fertilizers are the nano-particles-based fertilizers, where supply of the nutrients is made precisely for maximum plant growth, have higher use efficiency, exploiting plant unavailable nutrients in the rhizosphere and can be delivered on real time basis into the rhizosphere or by foliar spray (Priyanka Solangi et al., 2015). The small size, high specific surface area and reactivity of nano fertilizers increase the solubility, diffusion and availability of nutrients to plants and enhance crop productivity. Bioformulation is microbial preparations containing specific beneficial microorganisms which are capable of fixing or solubilizing or mobilizing plant nutrients for promoting plant growth and crop yield. Smart fertilizers are the better option for the farmers to increase their crop yield with low input cost in sustainable way without degrading natural environment.