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Role of Organic Fertilizers in Improving Soil Fertility

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Contaminants in Agriculture

Abstract

In the past few decades, intensive farming (use of various kinds of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides) has undesirable effects on the soil environment, both structural and microbial, and there is urgent need to restore it. Large-scale intensive farming has resulted in several physical and physiological problems in the soil and is also responsible for soil and environmental pollution. There is excess of chemical fertilizers in the unavailable form that are left in the soil, and these residuals cannot be absorbed by the plant. If there is a rainfall soon after the chemical fertilizers are applied in the fields, they get washed away and are accumulated in water bodies and cause water pollution, resulting in algal bloom. To minimize this adverse effect of chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers are being promoted now, giving rise to the concept of organic culture. Organic fertilizers include compost (village compost, town compost, water hyacinth compost and vermicompost), farmyard manure (cattle manures, sheep penning and poultry manures), green manures (leguminous plant and non-leguminous plant), biofertilizers (algal biofertilizer, fungal biofertilizer, bacterial biofertilizer or plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), etc.). Organic fertilizers have long since been known to improve physical properties viz. declining sodicity, reducing bulk density, water infiltration rate, increased porosity and aeration, improved saline water leaching and chemical properties, that is, decreasing acidity. On increasing the humus content, there is a change in biological properties of soil that help in flourishing of beneficial macro- and microorganisms. Organic amendments increase soil carbon and nitrogen content, which results in enhanced soil fertility and crop productivity and it is also eco-friendly and cost-effective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed University), Agra, India

    Teg Bahadur Singh, Akbar Ali, Mrinalini Prasad, Arti Yadav, Preksha Shrivastav, Deepika Goyal & Prem Kumar Dantu

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  1. Teg Bahadur Singh
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  2. Akbar Ali
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  3. Mrinalini Prasad
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    M. Naeem

  2. Department of Biology, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

    Abid Ali Ansari

  3. Centre for Biotechnology Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Sarvajeet Singh Gill

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Singh, T.B. et al. (2020). Role of Organic Fertilizers in Improving Soil Fertility. In: Naeem, M., Ansari, A., Gill, S. (eds) Contaminants in Agriculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41552-5_3

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