Alternative fertilizers and sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Sustainable food production requires application of fertilizers including macro and micronutrients in arable land. The fertilizers application in agricultural practices has significantly increased the production of food, fiber and other plant products. However, a significant portion of nitrogen (40-60%), phosphorus (80-90%) and potash (30-50%) applied fertilizers in the agricultural field is not taken up by plants due to different soil dynamics. Such losses increase the cost of fertilizers that severely reduce crop yield. Yet future access to mineral fertilizers receives major attention of plant scientists to overcome the applied fertilizer losses for food security. To overcome these problems, different alternative fertilizers are developed to efficient utilization of nutrients including microbial inoculants, value-added compost and biochar, acidulated-microbial active products, formula-modified fertilizers, liquid macro and micro-nutrient fertilizers with different mode of application to partial or complete substitution of reputed chemical fertilizers. This chapter puts forward the case of different alternative fertilizers and their potential for sustainable crop production.