Project Report on Manures and

Chemical Fertilizers

Project Report on Manures and Chemical fertilizers

Manures
The deficiency of plant nutrients and organic matter in the
soil is made up by adding manures and fertilizers to the soil
of crop-fields. Both manures and fertilizers are major
sources of nutrients of plants, so they are used in crop
production.
Besides water CO2 and sunlight plants required no. of
elements for their growth. These elements are known as
nutrient. Plants get their elements from the salt of these
elements present in the soil. But after repeated cultivation
of plants soil become poor in these elements. The
substance added to the soil to make up the deficiency of the
essential elements these by increasing the fertility of soil
are called fertilizers.
 Qualities of Good Fertilizers
1. The elements present in good fertilizers must be easily
available to plants.
2. Good fertilizers must be sufficiently soluble in water.
3. Good fertilizers should contain nothing injurious to plants.
Theory of Chemical Fertilizers
The majority of the chemical fertilizer whether simple
or mixed are in organic compounds, the generally contain
cation likes Ca2+, K+, NH4+ etc. and are soluble in water.
Therefore, these can be identified from their aqueous
solution by the regular systematic scheme used for
qualitative mixture analysis.
 Analysis of Chemical Fertilizers
All the plants need nutrients for their growth but each
plant may not require the same kinds, to meet the
requirement of particular crop we first need to analyse the
soil and then select the fertilizer. This proper selection of
fertilizer is possible if we know the cation and anion present
in a particular fertilizer.
The analysis means identification of acid and basic radicals
present in fertilizers.
In general, a chemical fertilizer may contain :
Anions : Cl–, NO3–, SO42–, PO43– etc.
Cations : Ca2+, K+, NH4+ etc.
 Manures or natural fertilizers
Manures are natural fertilizers. They are bulky

sources of organic matter which supply nutrients in small

quantities but organic matter in large quantities. Manures

include farmyard manure (FYM), compost, green manures,

vermicompost, etc.
 Advantages of Manures :
Manures affect the soil in following three ways :
(i) The manures enrich the soil with nutrients. They
replenish the general deficiency of nutrients in the soil.
Since manures contain nutrients in small quantities,
they are needed to be applied in large quantities.
(ii) The manures add organic matter (called humus) to
the soil which restores the soil texture for better
retention of water and for aeration of soil. For example,
organic matter present in the manures increases the
water holding capacity in sandy soils and drainage in
clayey soil.
(iii) The organic matter of manures provide food for the
soil organisms (decomposers such as bacteria, fungi,
etc.) which help in making nutrients available to plants.
Thus, organic matter help to improve the physical
properties of soil, reduce soil erosion, increase the
moisture holding capacity of soil and above all these
advantages, they are low cost nutrient carriers.
Disadvantages of Manures :
Manures are bulky with low nutrient content. The
nutrients of manures are released slowly, not keeping pace
with the high and rapid demand of nutrients by improved
high-yielding hybrid varieties of crops. Being bulky and
voluminous, they are inconvenient to handle, store and
transport. Moreover, a manure is not nutrient specific and
hence it is not much useful when a particular nutrient is
required in the soil for a particular crop.
Types of Nutrient
1. Farmyard Manure (FYM) :
FYM is the decomposed mixture of cattle excreta (dung)
and urine along with litter (i.e., bedding material used in
night under cattles) and left over organic matter such as
roughage or fodder. These waste materials are collected
daily from the cattle shed and stored in a pit for
decomposition by the microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.). FYM
contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Thus, a well
decomposed farmyard manure contains about 0.5 percent
nitrogen (N), 0.2 percent phosphorus pentaoxide (P2O5)
and 0.5 percent potassium monoxide (K2O).
2.Compost :
Compost is prepared from farm and town refuge such as
vegetable and animal refuse (e.g., excreta of domestic
animals such as cattle, goat, sheep, horse, donkey,
camel, dogs, cats, etc.), faecal matter of human beings,
sewage waste (Box 7-2), weeds, crop stubble, straw, rice,
hulls, forest litter, etc. Composting is a biological process in
which both aerobic (organisms requiring the presence of
oxygen for the respiration) and anaerobic (organisms, in
which respiration takes place in the absence of oxygen)
microorganisms decompose the organic matter. It takes
about 3 to 6 months for decomposition of organic refuse.
The nutrient contents of farm compost and town compost
are not the same. For example, farm compost generally
contains about 0.5 percent nitrogen (N), 0.15 percent
phosphorus pentaoxide (P2O5) and 0.5 percent potassium
monoxide (K2O), whereas compost prepared from town
refuse (garbage and night soil) contains about 1.4 percent
nitrogen (N), 1.0 percent phosphorus pentaoxide (P2O5)
and 1.4 percent potassium monoxide (K2O).
Method of Preparing Compost :
For the preparation of compost, a trench of suitable size 4
to 5 m. long, 1.5 to 1.8 m. broad and 1.0 to 1.8 m. deep in
dug. A layer of well-mixed refuse of about 30 cm. thickness
is spread in the trench. This layer is well moistened by slurry
(water paste) of cattle dung and water or earch and water.
A second layer of mixed refuse is spread in trench till the
heap rises to a height of 45 to 60 cm. above ground level.
The top of this heap is then covered with a thin layer of mois
earth. After three months, the partially decomposed
biomass is taken out of the trench and collected in conical
heap. This heap is moistened if necessary and covered with
earth. After another one or two months, the compost is
ready for use in the field.
3. Green Manuring :
The practice of green manuring includes growing, turning or
ploughing and mixing of green crops with soil to improve
physical structure and soil fertility. Green manures may
include both leguminous and non-leguminous plants, e.g.,
Sannhemp (Crotalaria juncea), Egyption clover (‘Berseem’,
Trifolium alexandrium), Sesbania or ‘Dhaincha’ (Sesbania
aculeata) and cluster bean or ‘Guar’ (Cyamopsis
tetragonoloba). These plants are used by Indian farmers to
add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil for the
improvement of crop yield.
The green manure crops are grown in the field for about 6
to 8 weeks and turned into field in the tender stage, i.e., at
flowering stage. These crops remain buried for about one
to two months. During this period, plants should be
completely decomposed before sowing of next crop.
Generally the crops which require high nutrient input, are
raised in the green manured field. Such crops are rice,
maize, sugarcane, cotton, wheat, etc.
Artificial Fertilizers or Chemical
Fertilizers :
Fertilizers are the sources of plant nutrients,
manufactured commercially from chemicals. They
contain much higher amount of nutrients in comparison to
the manures and are, therefore, used in very small
quantities. These fertilizers may supply one or more
nutrients. Chemically they may be inorganic compounds
(e.g., ammonium sulphate) or organic compounds (e.g.
urea). On the basis of the availability of nutrients from them,
fertilizers are divided into following four groups :
1. Nitrogenous Fertilizers :
These fertilizers supply the macronutrient nitrogen.
Examples of nitrogenous fertilizers are the following :
(i) Urea, CO (NH2)2 ;
(ii) Ammonium Sulphate, (NH4)2 SO4 ;
(iii) Calcium ammonium nitrate ;
(iv) Sodium nitrate, Na NO3 ;
(v) Ammonium Nitrate, NH4NO3 ;
2. Phosphatic Fertilizers :
They are the source of the macronutrient phosphorus.
Examples of phosphatic fertilizers are the following :
(i) Single Superphosphate ;
(ii) Triple Superphosphate ;
(iii) Dicalcium phosphate.
3. Potassic Fertilizers :
These fertilizers supply the potassium which is one of the
essential macronutrient to the plants. Examples of potassic
fertilizers are the following :
(i) Muriate of potash or potassium chloride, KCl ;
(ii) Potassium Sulphate, K2SO4 ;
(iii) Potassium nitrate, KNO3 ;
4. Complex Fertilizers :
When a fertilizer contains at least two or more nutrients (N,
P2O5 and K2O), it is called Complex Fertilizers. Examples of
complex fertilizers are the following :
(i) Nitrophosphate ;
(ii) Ammonium phosphate ;
(iii) Urea ammonium phosphate.
Modern agriculture depends greatly on the chemical
fertilizers. Indeed high doses of these chemicals greatly
increase crop yield but then chemicals get washed off
through irrigation, rainfalt as drainage and reach rivers,
lakes, streams and pollute them (by causing toxicity, algal
bloom and eutrophication) disturbing the ecosystem. The
water of these water bodies become unfit for human
consumption and even kills the aquatic animals such as
fishes. So chemical fertilizers must be used carefully and
judiciously.
5. Biofertilizers :
A Biofertilizers is Organisms which enrich the soil with
nutrients are called biofertilizers. Biofertilizers are used
for the specific crop plants such as pulses, legumes,
oil seeds and rice. Biofertilizers are renewable and non-
pollutant sources of plant nutrients such as
nitrogen. They are not alternatives to chemical fertilizers
but can play a supplementary role is supplying nitrogen to
specific crops under specific soil conditions. Nitrogen fixing
micro-organisms i.e., non-symbiotic and symboitic
cyanobacteria and phosphate-solubilising micro-organism,
are the main type of biofertilizers that are being used in
India. Recently, two biofertilizers, namely Rhizobium
cultures and blue green algae (such as Anabaena and
Nostoc) have gained popularity amongst farmers cultivating
pulses, legumes, oil seeds and wet-land rice.
6. Mycorrhiza :
Mycorrihiza is a symboitic (mutualistic) association of
certain fungi with roots of higher plants. Mycorrhiza
increases water and nutrient uptake by plants and increase
growth, vigour and yield of the plants.
 Differences between Manure and Fertilizers :
Manure Fertilizers
1. A manure is a natural 1. A fertilizer is a human made
substance. It is obtained by substance. It is an inorganic salt
decomposition of animal wastes or an organic compound.
such as dung (gobar) of cattle 2. Fertilizers are very rich in
and buffaloes and plant plant nutrients such as nitrogen,
residues. phosphorus and potassium.
2. A manure contains small 3. A fertilizer does not add any
amounts of essential plant humus to the soil.
nutrients such as nitrogen, 4. Being soluble in water, a
phosphorus and potassium. fertilizer is readily absorbed by
3. A manure adds a great the crop plants.
amount of organic matter in the 5. A fertilizer is nutrient specific.
form of humus in the soil. It can provide specifically
4. Nutrients present in the nitrogen, phosphorus and
manure are absorbed slowly by potassium to the soil according
the crop plants since manure is to the need.
not soluble in water. Nutrients 6. A fertilizer is compact and
exist locked inside the organic concentrated so it is easy to
compounds of humus. store, transport and apply to the
5. A manure is not nutrient crop.
specific and it tends to remove 7. A fertilizer is costly and is
the general deficiency of the prepared in factories.
soil.
6. A manure is voluminous and
bulky so it is inconvenient to
store, transport, handle and
apply to the crop.
7. A manure is cheap and is
prepared in rural homes or
fields.