Organic Fertilizers

Organic fertilizers are naturally available mineral sources that contain moderate amount of essential plant nutrients. Organic fertilizers can be natural (manure and slurry) or processed, such as compost, blood meal and humic acid, natural enzyme-digested proteins, fish meal, and feather meal . Organic fertilizers act as slow-release fertilizers, in a sense, they provide nutrients in lower amount over an extensive time period. Nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) are the three major macronutrients important for plant growth. Synthetic or quick-release fertilizers contain high amount of soluble nitrogen, which is easily soluble in water. Whereas, majority of organic fertilizers contain balanced amount of raw nitrogen and thus work as slow-release fertilizers. By their nature, organic fertilizers mitigate the risk of eutrophication, ground water contamination, and over fertilization.

Organic fertilizers have the following advantages:

• Improve soil (microbiological, physicochemical, and biochemical) properties and thus influence soil quality.
• Help in replenishing the loss in organic matter in short- and long-term periods and thus maintain soil fertility.
• They enhance the existing soil nutrients, and thereby healthy growth is achieved with minimum nutrient densities.
• Minimize environmental damage without reducing crop yields and achieve sustainable levels of agriculture production.