Analysis of Crop Nutrition: Organic Farming, Fertilizers & Legume Use

This essay examines different approaches to crop nutrition, focusing on synthetic fertilizers, legume rotation, and organic farming. Synthetic fertilizers are noted for their quick and cost-effective nutrient delivery, though they pose environmental risks due to chemical use and potential leaching. Legume rotation, a sustainable agricultural practice, enhances soil fertility, reduces erosion, and diversifies crops, but requires specific skills and may offer lower financial returns. Organic farming, emphasizing biological methods, minimizes synthetic chemical use and soil contamination, though it can be more water-intensive and may result in lower crop yields. The essay references studies highlighting the pros and cons of each method in the context of sustainable agriculture and crop productivity, particularly for cotton crops. Desklib offers a range of study tools and resources for students exploring topics like crop nutrition and sustainable agriculture.

Running head: CROP NUTRITION
CROP NUTRITION
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1CROP NUTRITION
1) Synthetic Fertilizers: To increase the total yield of crop, effective amount of fertilizers
are required that provide adequate nutrition for and increase crop yield (Arif et al. 2019).
Pros of Synthetic fertilizers:
 The formulation of synthetic fertilizers reacts quickly and effectively with the soil
 Cost effective as compared to organic fertilizers
 Widely available to use
Cons of Synthetic fertilizers:
 Use of chemicals is the major drawback of this fertilizers
 This fertilizer can only be used for short-term goal of crop yield
 Synthetic fertilizers can use different parts for leaching
2) Legume rotation: It is also known as crop rotation and is considered as a low-input
practice for sustainable agriculture. Crop rotation method has been practiced and used for a
long time by farmers for increasing productivity (Atkinson and Walker 2019).
Pros of Legume rotation:
 It reduces water overflow and soil erosion
 It reduces collection of weed and pests
 It increases soil fertility
 It delivers diversification
Cons of Legume rotation:
 This method requires skills and knowledge
 It requires additional machinery
 The might deliver less financial return

2CROP NUTRITION
3) Organic farming: Organic farming is considered as type of biological approach to
increase the yield of cotton crop by growing and producing organic cotton that is deprive of
fertilizers and pesticides (Kumar and Yaashikaa 2019).
Pros of organic farming:
 Less amount of synthetic chemicals used
 Easy and clean production process
 Less soil contamination
 No monocultures and least pollution to the environment
Cons of organic farming:
 Requires more water
 Sometimes result in lower yield of cotton crop
 Less efficient and produces fewer revenue
 Time intensive and requires more labour work

3CROP NUTRITION
References:
Arif, M., Kareem, S.H.S., Ahmad, N.S., Hussain, N., Yasmeen, A., Anwar, A., Naz, S., Iqbal,
J., Shah, G.A. and Ansar, M., 2019. Exogenously Applied Bio-Stimulant and Synthetic
Fertilizers to Improve the Growth, Yield and Fiber Quality of Cotton. Sustainability, 11(7),
p.2171.
Atkinson, D. and Walker, R.L., 2019. Crop Rotations: The Core of Organic Production. The
Science Beneath Organic Production, pp.87-109.
Kumar, P. S., & Yaashikaa, P. R. (2019). Organic Cotton and Its Environmental Impacts. In
Organic Cotton (pp. 127-139). Springer, Singapore.