UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD OF FERTILIZER (Part 1): “Do You Know That Fertilizer Does Not Increase Yield” – A Shocker!

When you are into crop farming and you haven’t started using fertilizer, you have not really started farming. How true is this? The common norm is; apply fertilizer and your yield would increase”. Yes this may be true at the surface but do you know that the fertilizer isn’t the primary reason while the yield shoots up. The question now is; what is the primary reason why the yield shoots up? Permit me to take you into another secret of successful crop farming.

Fertilizer and good seeds
Which is a better option; good seeds (varieties) or fertilizer application? Do not give it much thought, one is as good as the other therefore complement each other’s inherit properties. That said, what is more important is choosing good varieties or seeds cultivar with innate properties among which is, high yield. The truth is that fertilizer would not increase the yield of a variety BEYOND the innate potential of such variety. Then the question is: Why applying fertilizer?

Fertilizers are substances which contain essential nutrients for plant growth but if the soil has been extremely fertile in the first place, there might be no need for application of fertilizer of any sort. Except in some rural areas with large span of uncultivated arable land, where else can one find extremely fertile land?


Choosing the right fertilizer
There are different types of fertilizer whether of organic origin or synthetic. Starting with organic origin: there are:
• Animal manure which vary in composition depending on the source
• Green manure which also vary in composition depending on the source
• Compost: The nutrients composition largely depends on composting materials
• Micro Nutrients sources such as seaweed, azomite, Epsom salt etc.

On the other hand, Synthetic fertilizers are also of many forms among which are:

Major Sources of Nitrogen
• Urea: This is the most widely used N-Fertilizer. It has 46% of N.
• Compound fertilizer: This is the most common form of synthetic fertilizer commonly known as NPK. It supplies all the 3 major nutrients in different proportion. There are different formulae/compositions available in the market: We have 15:15:15, 20:10:10, and 12:12:12, 10:10:10 etc.
• Urea Ammonium Nitrate: Also known as UAN, It is mostly liquid in nature and often apply as foliar. It is a major source of N fertilizer
• Monoammonium Phosphate: MAP is a widely used source of P and N. It is made of two constituents common in the fertilizer industry
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