Organic Fertilizers are materials derived from plant and animal parts or residues. Examples are, Blood Meal, Compost, Bat Guano, Manure, Seaweed, and Worm Castings. It is a production system which favour maximum use of organic materials (like crop residue, animal residue, legumes, on and off farm wastages, growth regulators, bio-pesticides) and discourages the use of synthetically produced agro-inputs for maintaining soil productivity, fertility and pest management under ...

Synthetic Fertilizers are “Man made” inorganic compounds - usually derived from by-products of the petroleum industry. Examples are Ammonium Nitrate, Ammonium Phosphate, Superphosphate, and Potassium Sulfate. usually derived from by-products of the petroleum industry. Examples are Ammonium Nitrate, Ammonium Phosphate, Superphosphate, and Potassium Sulfate. Plants require 13 nutrients.

Chemical fertilizers add nutrients to the soil, but they don’t add anything else. Plants needs more than just nutrients to survive. They also need organic matter and living organisms. Synthetic fertilizers do not support microbiological life in the soil. The application of a synthetic fertilizer actually kills a significant percentage of beneficial microorganisms.  These tiny creatures are responsible for breaking down organic matter into a stable amendment for improving soil quality and fertility.  Some convert nitrogen from the air into a plant useable form.

Compost and organic material introduces beneficial microorganisms. Microorganisms commonly found in soil and compost convert organic nitrogen into inorganic nitrogen, a process called mineralization. Plants may then take up the nutrients released by these. Composts contain an astonishing variety of microbes, many of which may be beneficial in controlling pathogens.  Beneficial microbes help to control plant pathogens.

Organic matter improves soil structure, resulting in a crumb-like structure.

Organic matter improves water retention and enhances soil fertility.

Microorganisms can break down contaminants in the soil and water to components that pose less of an environmental hazard.

Limitations of chemical fertilizers:

Most chemical fertilizers do not contain micronutrients.

Synthetic fertilizers do not support microbiological life in the soil.

Chemicals fertilizers do not add organic content to the soil.

Synthetic chemicals can easily be over applied, and can "burn" roots, or create toxic concentration of salts.

Chemical fertilizers can release nutrients too quickly, creating a great deal of top growth before the roots are able to catch up. This kind of growth often leads to weaker and disease prone plants, with less fruiting.

Synthetic fertilizers often leach, because they dissolve easily, and release nutrients faster than plants use them.

Dear Dr. Sharma,

Considering the pertinent conclusion of Dr. M. Hesam Shahrajabian, i think that synthetic fertilizers are indispensable for most agricultural communities in this era like in most arid and semi arid areas of Africa or other areas with highly degraded soils, where organic matter is relatively limited in quantity, compared to the amount needed for large scale productivity. 

I think that proper usage of synthetic fertilizers through site specific fertlizer recommendation systems in combination with the available organic matter (integrated nutrient management) will promote crop production while maintaining the environment in good health. 

Many studies have shown that neither systems are 100% efficient . Thus a combination of synthetic fertilizers and organic matter appears to be the best option. 

don´t make it sound so complicate! Just watch the plants need for nutrients and then add accordingly by fertilization! All other issues like from where the fertilizer nutrients are coming is more or less secondary.

On this earth everything is interrelated and we can not think or act in pieacemeal that may cause imbalance in the ecosystem of earth as a whole

What is the contribution of synthetic fertilizers production and consumption vis a vis use of organic inputs in making climate resilience farming?

Where organic amendments shine is in the area of soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration. Most original studies in this area have focused only on a capability of legumes to mostly eliminate the carbon footprint of the production practice. Good but not best option in my viewpoint.

In a crop like maize, synthetic ammoniated fertilizer is about half of the total emission footprint. But what can be done in emission footprint reduction is still small compared to enormous potential for soil sequestration. 

If the maize is planted as a crop after alfalfa this imprint is virtually eliminated but the ley cropping also greatly increases the soil organic matter. Soil organic matter is the big area for focusing on not the emissions of practices alone. .

While this carbon footprint can be seen as a negative and its reduction and elimination a positive this is equivalent in carbon to 100 to 300 kg/ha/yr C.

Here is the bigger mostly unheralded bigger story. When we change to using compost can feed the soil and provide for the maize crop optimally and at the same time can result in many times more positive benefit for its role as soil carbon and nitrogen sequestering.

A compost amendment program can add thousands of sequestered carbon into the soil and not only eliminates the negative carbon footprint of a couple hundred kg/ha but also gets our greenhouse gas budget enormously on the plus side. Lal has suggested that positive sequestration of no-till maize using synthetic fertilizer if applied to tillable lands around the world would counteract about 10% of the total greenhouse gas emission.

The Puget and Lal long term analysis puts no-till at a sequester value of about 300 kg C per ha per year. The results with compost of intensive holistic pasturing and crop and animal integration would show that the total emissions of present fossil fuel use can be remediated by focusing on our raising of soil organic matter in our tillable lands and pastures to levels before man's intervention to deplete them. This will not only reverse the greenhouse gas enrichment over time but also mitigate the effects of climate change from the promoting of greater soil ability to capture and recirculate water resources and grow optimally at higher than accustomed temperatures. 

A compost amendment program can add thousands of sequestered carbon into the soil and not only eliminates the negative carbon footprint of a couple hundred kg/ha but also gets our greenhouse gas budget enormously on the plus side. Lal has suggested that positive sequestration of no-till maize using synthetic fertilizer if applied to tillable lands around the world would counteract about 10% of the total greenhouse gas emission. The Puget and Lal long term analysis puts no-till at a sequester value of about 300 kg C per ha per year.

The results with compost of intensive holistic pasturing and crop and animal integration would show that the total emissions of present fossil fuel use can be remediated by focusing on our raising of soil organic matter in our tillable lands and pastures to levels before man's intervention to deplete them. This will not only reverse the greenhouse gas enrichment over time but also mitigate the effects of climate change from the promoting of greater soil ability to capture and recirculate water resources and grow optimally at higher than accustomed temperatures. 

Rattan Lal, noted soil carbon expert,  has suggested that positive sequestration of no-till maize using synthetic fertilizer if applied to tillable lands around the world would counteract about 10% of the total greenhouse gas emission. The Puget and Lal long term analysis puts no-till at a sequester value of about 300 kg C per ha per year. The results with compost of intensive holistic pasturing and crop and animal integration would show that the total emissions of present fossil fuel use can be remediated by focusing on our raising of soil organic matter in our tillable lands and pastures to levels before man's intervention to deplete them. This will not only reverse the greenhouse gas enrichment over time but also mitigate the effects of climate change from the promoting of greater soil ability to capture and recirculate water resources and grow optimally at higher than accustomed temperatures. 

The Puget and Lal long term analysis puts no-till at a sequester value of about 300 kg C per ha per year. The results with compost of intensive holistic pasturing and crop and animal integration would show that the total emissions of present fossil fuel use can be remediated by focusing on our raising of soil organic matter in our tillable lands and pastures to levels before man's intervention to deplete them. This will not only reverse the greenhouse gas enrichment over time but also mitigate the effects of climate change from the promoting of greater soil ability to capture and recirculate water resources and grow optimally at higher than accustomed temperatures. 

This is based on the ability of these systemsto capture thousands of kg/ha/yr carbon. This will not only reverse the greenhouse gas enrichment over time but also mitigate the effects of climate change from the promoting of greater soil ability to capture and recirculate water resources and grow optimally at higher than accustomed temperatures. 

Unfortunately, most original focus pointed to the ability of legumes to mostly eliminate the carbon footprint of the production practice. In a crop like maize, this is about half of the total emission footprint. If the maize is planted as a crop after alfalfa this imprint is virtually eliminated. While this footprint which is negative can be equivalent in carbon to 100 to 300 kg/ha the bigger story is that changing to using compost can feed the maize crop optimally and can result into many times more positive benefit for its accumulated benefit as soil carbon and nitrogen.

A compost amendment program can add thousands of sequestered carbon into the soil and not only eliminates the negative carbon footprint of a couple hundred kg/ha but also gets our greenhouse gas budget enormously on the plus side. Lal has suggested that positive sequestration of no-till maize using synthetic fertilizer if applied to tillable lands around the world would counteract about 10% of the total greenhouse gas emission. The Puget and Lal long term analysis puts no-till at a sequester value of about 300 kg C per ha per year.

The results with compost of intensive holistic pasturing and crop and animal integration would show that the total emissions of present fossil fuel use can be remediated by focusing on our raising of soil organic matter in our tillable lands and pastures to levels before man's intervention to deplete them.

This will not only reverse the greenhouse gas enrichment over time but also mitigate the effects of climate change from the promoting of greater soil ability to capture and recirculate water resources and grow optimally at higher than accustomed temperatures. 

One  important point to keep in mind when answering this interesting question is that a significant part of the elements in organic fertilisers originally came from synthetic fertilisers. These elements where once taken up by the crops, then fed tout animals, then spread on lands as manure. And so on.

For France for example we demonstrated that more than 70% of phosphorus on agricultural land originally came from chemical fertilisers.

Article Contribution of Anthropogenic Phosphorus to Agricultural Soi...

It is more the synthetic nitrogenous fertilisers that contribute to global warming so please   write more on that.

In composting the humification of the plant and animal residues can result in a remanent material which has a much longer half-life which could contribute to counteracting greenhouse gasses and resolving issues related to climate change. Use of compost rather than synthetic fertilizer would mediate the issues we are talking about.  The biggest potential for contributing to greenhouse gasses is the employment of fertilization that results in a lowering of the soil organic matter level of the soil. This dramatically worsens the climate scenario and is exactly what has happened from the inception of agriculture revolution about 10,000 years ago. The biggest example of practice to reverse global greenhouse gasses is terra do preta or Indian Black Soils which dominate an area of the nation of France in areas which were populated by Indians before Colombus in a period that started a few hundred years before Christ. The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The biggest potential for contributing to greenhouse gasses is the employment of fertilization that results in a lowering of the soil organic matter level of the soil. This dramatically worsens the climate scenario and is exactly what has happened from the inception of agriculture revolution about 10,000 years ago. The biggest example of practice to reverse global greenhouse gasses is terra do preta or Indian Black Soils which dominate an area of the nation of France in areas which were populated by Indians before Colombus in a period that started a few hundred years before Christ. The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The biggest example of practice to reverse global greenhouse gasses is terra do preta or Indian Black Soils which dominate an area of the nation of France in areas which were populated by Indians before Colombus in a period that started a few hundred years before Christ. The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The biggest potential for contributing to greenhouse gasses is the employment of fertilization that results in a lowering of the soil organic matter level of the soil. This dramatically worsens the climate scenario and is exactly what has happened from the inception of agriculture revolution about 10,000 years ago. The biggest example of practice to reverse global greenhouse gasses is terra do preta or Indian Black Soils which dominate an area of the nation of France in areas which were populated by Indians before Colombus in a period that started a few hundred years before Christ. The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The biggest example of practice to reverse global greenhouse gasses is terra do preta or Indian Black Soils which dominate an area of the nation of France in areas which were populated by Indians before Colombus in a period that started a few hundred years before Christ. The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The biggest example of practice to reverse global greenhouse gasses is terra do preta or Indian Black Soils which dominate an area of the nation of France in areas which were populated by Indians before Colombus in a period that started a few hundred years before Christ. The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

The man induced soil change contributed to black organic top soil layers of up to more than 3 meters thick with a potential to hold over 300,000 kg/ha Carbon compared to the soil which has less than 10,000 kg/ha Carbon. The studies suggest that this change was induced by the combination of charcoal cooking wastes being combined with waste urine and plant remanent which were repatriated into the fields surrounding the village centers. Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

Because charcoal has such a long half-life this has led to enthusiasm to generate energy with biomass and using remanent charcoal to cause a major long-term transformation of the soil. This particularly makes sense for oxisols and ultisols which are low in alkalinity and nutrients and these can be made very fertile with this amendment.   

Besides concerns about the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, nitrous oxide and methane are increasing in the atmosphere and are on an equal weight basis even more able to absorb heat and retain it rather than releasing it as carbon dioxide. Concerns with methane are centered on paddy rice conditions and ruminants because methane is released under anaerobic environments such as found in swampy conditions and in the rumen of ruminant animals.