Indian Soils are Nutrient deficiency
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Indian Soils are Nutrient deficiency
Subject: Geography
Section: Geomorphology
Context:
- ‘State of Biofertilizers and Organic fertilizers in India’ report by Centre for Science and Environment highlights the soil nutrient deficiency in India
About Soil Nutrients:
- Plants require a steady supply of macronutrients and micronutrients.
- Macronutrients are required in larger quantities than micronutrients.
- The names of the two categories don’t imply that one type of nutrient is more important than another; it just means that more macronutrients must be present in the soil than micronutrients.
- Plants obtain nearly all of the nutrients they need from the soil, although some are obtained via photosynthesis.
Macronutrients are divided into two groups:
- Primary: Needed in the highest concentration: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K)
- Secondary: Required for sustained plant health, but in lower quantities than the primary macronutrients. Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), and Sulfur (S)
Micronutrients: Essential to plant development and growth but are needed only in trace amounts, compared to their macro-counterparts.
- Boron (B)
- Zinc (Zn)
- Iron (Fe)
- Manganese (Mn)
- Copper (Cu)
- Molybdenum (Mo)
- Chlorine (Cl)
Status of Indian Soil nutrients as per the study:
- More than 50 million soil samples from across India were tested during 2015-16 to 2018-19 in the government-approved laboratories to understand the state of the country’s soils.