Types of Fertilisers

Types of Fertilisers

Types of Fertilisers
There are principally two types of fertilisers namely chemical and biological. In India, the Green Revolution brought in its wake, massive use of chemical fertilisers leading to contamination of water by nitrates and increased salinity of the soil. Chemical fertilisers are very expensive from the energy point of view leading to high cost and dependence on nonrenewable energy sources. For example, Factamphos and NPK are chemical fertilisers.

Chemical fertilisers have the following effects on soil.
short-term increase of soil fertility
immediate increase in soil fertility
non-biodegradable residues are left in the soil leading to biomagnification
chemicals are leached into water

To counteract the above disadvantages of chemical fertilisers, the focus has therefore shifted to bio-fertilisers which are advantageous in the following ways.

they improve soil structure
they are long-term fertilisers
no residues are left in soil
gradual distribution of the required nutrient is seen
act as biocontrol agents

Bio-Fertilisers
Bio-fertilisers are preparations containing active or latent cells of efficient strains of certain microbes that can utilise the atmospheric nitrogen to increase the nitrogen content of soil, and can dissolve the insoluble phosphate of the soil to release the phosphorus it contains in the soluble form for increasing crop yield. Bio-fertilizers are of the following types:

bacterial
fungal
algal
aquatic fern
earthworms

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