Increased costs as well as increased awareness of the impact of fertilizer leaching on the environment have increased interest in use of controlled release fertilizer to increase the nutrient uptake efficiency and reduced the nutrient leaching potential. The application cost of fertilizer also reduced considerably.
Without any doubt , it has a bright future ....And more so in horticultural crops having longer duration of crop maturity than annual crops....
In order to minimize environmental pollution and enhancing crop yield control release fertilizers have tremendous scope in Indian agriculture.
In my view, in the next decade or so controlled fertilizers will take over fertilizers like prilled urea. They are definitely superior to the ordinary urea in terms of increasing yield of crops as well as fertilizer nitrogen use efficiency (and as a consequence reduced loss of N to the environment). At present, the major hurdle in the extensive use of controlled-release fertilizers is their cost vis-a-vis highly subsidized urea or neem coated urea (in India). If we look at the trend in the price of these fertilizers, it is rapidly decreasing with the advancement in coating technologies. We started with sulphur as a coating and now we have polymer-coated urea. Things are changing very fast and I am of the belief that not very far in the future most of the fertilizer N used in crop production will be controlled-release urea. May I suggest you go through the attached chapter of mine to have an overview of controlled-release fertilizers?
Thank you all for your views. I fully agree with Dr. Srivastava, it would be definitely better for longer duration crops as it was reported that release can be extended for 16 weeks. I congratulate Dr,. Singh for his excellent chapter on the subject.
It might be, but not at all for all the time. There will be definitely needed of controlled release fertilizers in future agriculture, but the necessity of quick released fertilizers should have the great demand for as usual growth and development of plants forever. For instance, top dressing is a universal practice for shallow rooted and short duration crops/plants for which some fertilizers like urea is applied to release N quickly as required by crops.
@ Abdul, I respect your views, but is it not possible to prepare control release fertilizer to release the nutrients as per crop demand during the crop growth period?
Undoubtly, it is very important as proven by fertigation under protected cultivation. Replication of same in open fields with enhanced efficiency and productivity is practised by innovative farmers in vegetable crops. Preparation of nano fertilizers is ahead for the same purpose.
Yes definitely they have brighter future as they play greater role in enhancing nutrient use efficiency
Maybe in the near future they will be used widely but up to know their cost and maybe also farmer awareness about their advantages are limiting the adoption of controlled fertilizers, at least in Italy.
It is quite sure that new environmental goals as well the EU strategy Farm to Fork will push to adopt innovative solutions such as controlled release fertilizers at least to avoid NH3 emission that are a crucial issues for air quality and acidification. We have to take into account that a famers needs evidence of economic advantages to adopt innovation and many efforts must be made in this direction.
Present scenario in Haryana (India) is that Urea is replaced, considerably, by Neem Coated Urea at farmer field level.
Controlled-Release Fertilizers (CRFs) are primarily granular fertilizers, soluble in water and the semi permeable barriers that are present on the outside of the granules to control the nutrient release. The nutrient release of CRFs is steered by soil temperature. Depending on the region, soil temperature and CRF longevities can vary. Fertilizers with slow-release nitrogen are more expensive than quick-release synthetic fertilizers, the benefits include low risk of burning the turf; more even, sustained grass growth (less mowing); and less leaching into ground and surface water. Controlled-Release Fertilizers are easily identifiable benefits to using CRFs: ease of use, reduction of application costs compared to water-soluble fertilizers, and potential reduction of environmental impact. In contrast to slow release fertilizers, controlled released fertilizers have a predictable release pattern over time that is commonly temperature based. Controlled release fertilizers that are currently used are based on diffusion coatings. Using controlled-release (CRF) and slow-release (SRF) fertilizers allows growers to supply nutrients for an extended duration without the specialized equipment needed to apply water-soluble fertilizers. These fertilizers are added to the media at mixing or applied to the media surface after planting.
CRFs can help improve N synchrony only under specific soil, crop, and climatic conditions and their high cost can prove a barrier to their widespread use. There is a need to explore combining CRFs with knowledge-based site-specific fertilizer management strategies to achieve high yields and high N use efficiency through improved N synchrony. Controlled-release coatings currently in use have been designed based on the predicted crop N demand. These are neither able to respond to the N needs of the crop plants in real-time nor take into account microbial interactions in the soil-plant systems. New economical CRFs are already being designed using enzyme inhibitors with modifiable chemical structures and biodegradable coatings that respond to plant rhizosphere signaling molecules.
Controlled Released Formulations (CRF) are needed for sustainable growth of the agriculture. It might be success with fertilizers but in case of Controlled Released Insecticides (CRI), most frequently we observe the resistance development in insects. Like this, these CRF will have any negative impact on soil micro-biota such studies are needed sir. Thank you.
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