Synthetic Fertilizers for Sustainable Agriculture

One of the key natural resources gifted by nature to support plant life is the soil. It is the transformation product of mineral and organic substances on earths’ surface under the influence of climate which is the growth medium of plant kingdom. Soil is the sole base of entire agricultural production enterprise. Intensive cropping coupled with high yielding cultivars increased the drain of nutrients recently. Exhausted soil show several mineral stresses and fertilizer is essential to recoup all the deficient elements. The current consumption of fertilizer in our country is 18 million tonnes of NPK per annum. This is equivalent to 800 million bags containing 50 kg NPK each. As the population is growing at the rate of 15 million per year, the fertilizer consumption has also to be increased in the coming years. Increased use of fertilizers is the major way of feeding and cloth the burgeoning population. This book makes an in depth assessment of various aspects of fertilizer from manufacture to use. Recent research accomplishments of nutrient use efficiency in also covered. Materials covered are history of mineral nutrition, nutrient absorption, major nutrients, secondary nutrients and micro elements, crop deficiency symptoms, and nutrient use efficiency etc. The book is written for a broad readership and should be interest to agricultural scientists, teachers, students, planners, training centres, environmental scientists and progressive farmers who are interested in sustainable crop production.