Specialty Fertilizers in Agriculture : An Overview

摘要

Abysmally low nutrient use efficiency(NUE),environmental degradation threats,shift to precision agriculture,attractive market premiums on quality produce,accelerated adoption of fertilizer and water-saving fertigation technologies,and paradigm shift towards integrated holistic cost-effective crop solutions have been the major drivers for introducing specialty in the bulk or commodity fertilizers.Specialty fertilizers include i)enhanced-efficiency nitrogen fertilizers(EENFs),ii)water soluble fertilizers,iii)micronutrients(in particular chelated sources),iv)fortified fertilizers,v)customized fertilizers,vi)liquid fertilizers,and vii)nano fertilizers.Despite proven agronomic superiority,high cost of these products has restricted their use to only low volume high value crops,turf and ornamentals,nurseries,and plantations.With 100 neem oil coating of urea made mandatory w.e.f.2015,India has entered the segment of specialty fertilizers in a big way,with neem oil coated urea(NCU)consumption of 33.54 Mt in 2019-20.With water scarcity looming large exacerbated by the threats of inefficient fertilizer use leading to higher environmental foot prints,market for fertigation technology and consequential water-soluble fertilizers has a bright future in India.Government of India needs to take a call on bringing policy reforms like easy introduction of new innovative fertilizers,and extending nutrient based subsidy(NBS)to all the fertilizer products.