Integrated Nutrient Management: A Long-term Approach towards Sustainability

Abstract

Increased global food demand, as well as the need for an environmentally acceptable approach for a sustainable soil-plant-microbe-environmental system, necessitate special attention when it comes to agricultural productivity. Chemical fertilization is one approach to increase crop productivity as happened during the Green revolution. Food grain output in India increased from 115.6 million tonnes in 1960-61 to over 281.37 million tonnes in 2018-19 as a result of chemical fertilization. Similarly, yearly fertilizer use jumped from 0.07 million tonnes in 1951-52 to over 25.95 million tonnes in 2016-17.But due to injudicious use of chemical fertilizers soil, plant, human and animal health are at stake. Also, increased soil compaction and widespread multinutrient deficits have emerged as important restrictions limiting crop productivity and farm income. Because a major rise in fertilizer consumption is unlikely in the near future for economic and environmental reasons, there is a need to improve nutrient use efficiency through integrated and balanced fertilizer. On the other hand, organic manures, are unable to fulfill all of a crop's nutritional needs. Integrated nutrient management (INM) was created as a result of the aforesaid factors being taken into account. In this paper,role of INM in overcoming these difficulties is discussed, as it has been offered as a promising solution for tackling these issues. Plant performance and resource efficiency can be improved in a variety of ways with INM while also allowing for environmental and resource protection quality. With the use of advanced INM procedures, chemical fertilizer inputs are reduced, resulting in fewer human and environmental costs without any negative impact on crop production.Long-term research in various soil-crop situations have demonstrated the advantages of integrated nutrient management (INM), which includes the utilisation of organic and biological resources as well as fertilizers. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the effect of various INM components on Physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil, nutrient use efficiency, crop productivity and the role of these components in improving soil health. The majority of INM research has been done using dominant crop rotations of main field crops cultivated in the subtropical North Western states of India and most of the experiments revealed that INM leads to long term sustainable production along with providing nutritional security and also reduces pollution and enhances soil health by improving various physical, chemical and biological properties of soil.