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Balanced Nutrition for Sustainable Crop Production

- Agricultural Extension
Education
By Sanjay Arora Department of Soils, Punjab Agricultural University LUDHIANA – 141 004 - Agricultural Marketing &
Storage
- Agricultural Legislation
The rate of growth of agriculture in its broad coverage nf crop production is much below - Agricultural Engineering

the national growth rate. If the economy of country is to be improved through agriculture, it
has to strengthen its programmes in such a manner to better utilize the natural resources
along with balanced use of chemical fertilizers and other inputs. We are aware that for
increasing the food production to fulfill the food requirements of the burgeoning population
of the country sustainability of agriculture and environmental safety are the priority issues.
To avoid wastage of precious national resource and to minimize the environmental damage
there is need develop and demonstrate balanced use of chemical fertilizer. This will not
only improve the crop production in sustainable way but also economize the crop
production. Higher food production needs higher amount of plant nutrients. As no single
source is capable of supplying the required amount of nutrients, integrated use of all
sources is a must to supply balanced nutrition to plants.

What is balanced nutrition

Balanced fertilization does not mean a certain definite proportion of nitrogen, phosphorus
and potash or other nutrients to be added in the form of fertilizer, but it has to take into
account the availability of nutrients already present in the soil, crop requirement and other
factors. It should take into account the crop removal of nutrients, the economics of
fertilizers and profitability, farmers ability to invest, agro-techniques, soil moisture regime,
weed control, plant protection, seed rate, sowing time, soil salinity, alkalinity, physical
environment, microbiological condition of the soil, available nutrient status of soil,
cropping sequence, etc. It is not a state but a dynamic concept.

We can say that balanced use of fertilizers should be mainly aimed at :

(a) increasing crop yield, (b) increasing crop quality, (c) increasing farm income, (d)
correction of inherent soil nutrient deficiencies, (e) maintaining or improving lasting soil
fertility, (f) avoiding damage to the environment, and (g) restoring fertility and productivity
of the land that has been degraded by wrong and exploitative activities in the past.

Balanced use of plant nutrients corrects nutrient deficiency, improves soil fertility,
increases nutrient and water use efficiency, enhances crop yields and farmers income,
betters crop and environmental quality. To reap the benefits of balanced use of plant
nutrients, it is important to have good quality seed, adequate moisture and better agronomic
practices with greater emphasis on timeliness and precision in farm operations.

Soil testing is one of the most important tools to practice balanced fertilization. Balanced
fertilizer rates differ from area to area and also from crop to crop. Through soil testing
farmers can know how much and what kind of fertilizer to use for each crop. A further
refinement in fertilizer dose is possible on the basis of type of crop and its variety, water
availability and its quality, availability of organic manures, crop residues, biofertilizers, etc.

Since the initiation of green revolution in late sixties, India has made a remarkable progress
in fertilizer nutrient use with the introduction of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice.
Crop production under intensified agriculture over the years has resulted in large scale
removal of nutrients from the soil, resulting in negative balance and declining soil fertility.

Organic sources are undoubtedly an important source of nutrients but their amounts and
available nutrient content and the release rate is woefully inadequate for meeting the
demands of intensive and high yielding crop production.

India is presently using 15 mt of nutrients in the form of chemical fertilizers. Supplying the
same through organic sources would require more than a thousand million tones, which is
an impossible task indeed. Such organic manures in monumental volumes are neither
available nor can be generated. Thus organic sources of nutrients can only be relied upon
on meeting parts of the nutrients needs of the crop. They should be added along with
chemical fertilizers for ensuring stability and sustainability of food production.

In India fertilizer consumption increased from less than 50,000 tonnes in 1950 to 15 million
tones in 2000 and the food grain production increased from 50 mt to 200 mt in the same
period, indicating a direct relationship between the fertilizer use and yield increase. The
green revolution or spectacular increase in production would not have been possible
without many fold increase in use of fertilizers. The high yielding varieties became a
catalyst for the conversion of chemical energy into biological productivity. We have not yet
realized the full potential of these varieties. Even the optimum potential of available
technology remains mostly unrealized in most regions as nutrient input does not match the
needs of the crop and soil.

There are vast differences in consumption of fertilizers per ha of cropped area in different
regions. The fertlizer consumption varies from 114, 103, 58, 47 kg (NPK) per ha cropped
area in north, south, east and west respectively. Some states like Punjab are using more
than 167 kg nutrients per ha as against some using less than 10 kg nutrients per ha. About
70 – 80 per cent fertilizer is used for growing rice and wheat. Besides these the major
recipients of the remaining fertilizer use are sugarcane, cotton, potato, plantation and
horticulture crops. The lowest fertilizer use is in rainfed farming, which covers nearly 66
per cent of the total cropped area in the country. It hardly needs to be stressed that in these
rainfed areas more from deficiency than moisture inadequacy. But the later is more
appreciated than the former.

There are also wide differences in the consumption ratio of three major nutrients N : P2O5 :
K2O in different regions, crops and cropping systems. These differences also got magnified
and showed aberrations due to adhoc changes in pricing policy of fertilizers during the
recent years. This and the NPK ratio for India changed from 5.9 : 2.4 : 1.0 in 1991-92 to
9.7 : 2.9 : 1.0 in 1993-94. There is also divergence in ratios in different regions. While the
ratio in 1995-96 was 41.4 : 8.5 : 1.0 in northern states and 3.8 : 1.4 : 1.0 in southern states.
Such divergence in new ratio is also due to the differences in the quality of land, inherent
soil fertility, cropping systems and degree of exploitive agriculture.

Soil test summarizes indicate that 98 per cent Indian soils have low to medium available P
and 60 per cent medium K status whereas, N continues to be universally deficient. 47 per
cent soils are deficient in Zn, 12 per cent Cu and 4 per cent in Mn. In some states and crops
the deficiency of B and Mo are also becoming limiting factors for crops production. In
recent years a phenomenal increase in S deficiency has been witnessed specially under
intensive cropping system where high analysis fertilizers devoid of S are used. The S
deficiency is more pronounced in crops like oil seeds, legumes and intensively fertilized
rice and wheat. Infact, the spectrum of S deficiency is increasing so rapidly that in future it
will become on of the major yield limiting factors. It is said that the planners are more
concerned with the yield barriers of some high yielding varieties but do not seem to be
concerned with the rapidly changing scenario of plant nutrient deficiency and the pivotal
role of fertilizers in food security. Thus in a situation where besides NPK the nutrients such
as Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, B and S are also becoming limiting factors, It is unthinkable to have a
sustained food security without balanced and integrated use of nutrients from external
sources. The spectrum of nutrient deficiency is becoming more apparent under areas of
intensive cropping systems which are the main contributors of National food stock of Food
Corporation of India. There are signs of yield stagnation and low responses to fertilizers
and other inputs because of imbalanced fertilizer use.

Nitrogen no doubt is the most limiting factor for Indian agriculture, but nitrogen alone is
not enough and fertilizer does not mean nitrogen fertilizers only. Lack of this appreciation
has led to poor results in most cases. Improving N use efficiency is the major problem for
improving economy of its use specially in rice growing areas.

Green manuring with legumes and other means of biological nitrogen fixations such as
through Blue Green Algae , Azolla, etc. can contribute to some of the N needs of rice crop
but there are numerous technological, economic and operational problems to their use. At
best they can be relied upon for 30 – 60 kg supply under good management. The efficiency
of use of biofertilizers is more crop specific, location specific and management specific and
unless there is a reliable system of quality control and a good system of storage,
transportation and management in the field, the expected contribution will not be realized.

No doubt the awareness of balanced use of fertilizers is growing, but enormously wide N :
P : K ratio are a matter of great concern. It is amazing that NPK ratios in Haryana during
1995-96 was 186 : 42 : 1 as against 64 : 14 : 1 in Punjab and 1.9 : 0.6 : 1 in Tamil Nadu as
against 8.9 : 2.8 : 1 in whole of India. Bringing this ratio closer to the desirable ratio of 4 :
2 : 1 for cereals is essential for maximizing the efficiency of fertilizers. The matter is more
urgent lest in the long run, disappointingly low yields result. The situation of P and K is
more worrisome in India.

The declining use efficiency of fertilizers and of soil productivity are other matters of
concern. This fatiguing effect is more prominent in frontier states of green revolution such
as Punjab, Haryana, U.P. and other intensively cropped areas of the country. It has been
estimated that annually we are robbing the soil of more nutrients in the form of biomass
than returning to it in the form of fertilizer and manures. The annual negative balance
seems to be of the order of about 10 mt of NPK. It will become manifold when we attempt
doubling the productivity and production. If this nutrient drain continues, the sustained
high productivity and sustainability of agriculture will be an impossible task.

India is adding every year population to one Australia and New Zealand and it is estimated
that by 2025 the population of the country will touch 1.4 billion mark. For feeding such a
large population, India may need about 300 million tones of foodgrains annually. It may
require 35-45 mt of nutrients from both organic and inorganic sources of fertilizers.
Besides these it will also need thousand tones of Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu and B.

It is not only the huge amounts of fertilizer nutrients which matters but also the use
efficiency and management system which will determine their economics or benefit/ cost
ratio is equally important. Thus the key to future national food security and national
security lies in balanced and integrated supply and management system, and there is no
alternative to it. Balanced fertilizer use is also necessary to improve the economics or
profitability of fertilizer use which provides incentive to farmer for its efficient use. It also
improves the quality of the produce which is very much in demand for the export market as
well as for home market. It hardly needs to be stressed that many wrong notions about
fertilizer use spoiling the soil quality are related to imbalanced and imprudent use of
nitrogenous fertilizers only.

No single source of plant nutrient, whether it is chemical fertilizer or organic manure or

green manure or biofertilizer or crop residue is in a position to meet the growing crop
nutrient need. Moreover, the right kind of nutrients required by the crop crops may not be
achieved from a single source. For example different chemical fertilizers can supply the
nutrients like N, P, K, Zn and S; Green manuring use can meet a part of nitrogen
requirement, one tonne organic manure can add about 12 kg NPK and also some
micronutrients; crop residue like rice straw is a good source of potassium and use of
biofertilizers can supply nitrogen @ 20-25 kg/ha and mobilize soil phosphorus. This
implies that integrated use of plant nutrients is essential mainly for two obvious reasons (i)
to increase nutrient supply and (ii) practice balanced fertilization. In addition integrated use
of different sources of plant nutrient helps to increase their efficiencies and also crop
productivity.

All out efforts should be made to educate farmers to practice balanced use of fertilizers. Of
late, some fertilizer companies and associations have come forward to educate the
villagers, publication of literature in regional languages related to balanced use of fertilizers
for higher crop yields in a sustainable way. The actual time has come, the farmers,
researchers and other related communities should come forward and act in this respect. The
chemical fertilizers should be used judiciously and use manures along with chemical
fertilizers for improving the crop yield and soil productivity in a sustainable way. Many
more activities are being planned to promote the balanced use of fertilizers. And it is hoped
that all these efforts would lead to desired awareness and as a result balanced fertilizer use
would become a reality in near future.