Phosphatic Fertilizer Management to Sustaining the Crop Productivity

Phosphorus (P) is an important nutrient in fertilizers used in agricultural systems. It is second largest limiting element for a plant growth. P is essential to all known life forms because it is a key element in many physiological and biochemical processes and it cannot be replaced by any other element. Phosphorus plays many vital roles in crop growth and is referred to by many as the “king-pin” in Indian agriculture. Society relies heavily on inorganic P fertilizers throughout its food chain. This dependency is not only very inefficient and increasingly costly but is depleting finite global reserves of rock phosphate. Therefore, more precise strategies for P management that seeks to develop more sustainable food chains that maintain P availability to crops and livestock but with reduced amounts of imported mineral P and improved soil function.