Avoid Indiscriminate Use of Urea

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Special Service and Features
26-March-2015 12:24 IST

Avoid Indiscriminate Use of Urea

Feature
Agriculture
Dr. B. S. Dwivedi*
Constant decline in soil fertility status, mainly due to nutrient removal by intensive cropping systems in amounts
far-exceeding their replenishment through fertilizers and manures during past few decades, is considered one of the serious
second-generation problems of Green Revolution. Farmers often use nitrogenous fertilizers (mostly urea) or nitrogenous
and complex fertilizers (mostly urea and DAP), ignoring the application of potash and other deficient nutrients.
On the other hand, multi-nutrient deficiencies have already emerged and expanded in most of the soils. Soil analysis under
different projects revealed widespread deficiency of at least six nutrients viz., Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potash (K),
Sulphur (S), Zinc (Zn) and Boron (B) in different parts of the country. Some diagnostic surveys carried out in rice-wheat
growing areas of north-western India revealed that farmers often apply greater than recommended rates of N to sustain the
yield levels that were attained earlier with even less fertilizer use.
Urea, being most common N fertilizer, is indiscriminately used irrespective of scientific prescriptions. Excessive use of urea
leads to several adverse implications on soil, crop quality and overall ecosystem. Some major disadvantages of
excessive/indiscriminate use of urea are listed as under:
It enhances mining of soil nutrients that are not applied or applied inadequately, thus leading to deterioration of soil
fertility. Such soils may require more fertilizers over time to produce optimum yields.
Nitrogen applied in excess of crop demand is lost through volatilization, denitrification and leaching.
Excessive use of N (urea) encourages climate change (when lost through denitrification) and groundwater pollution (when
lost through leaching). Increase in nitrate content of groundwater in some intensively-cropped areas has been reported,
which is obviously due to leaching of nitrates beyond crop root zone. Increase in nitrate content of groundwater is
potentially harmful, as it is used for drinking purposes in most of the rural areas.
Fertilizer N (urea) application beyond recommended rates enhances crop succulence, thus making the plants prone to
disease and pest infestation, and to lodging.
Unbalanced use of urea decreases N use efficiency, thus leads to increase in cost of production and lowering of net profits.
For increasing use efficiency of N and other nutrients, profitability and environmental safety, fertilizer N (urea) application
needs to be rationalized. A few guidelines for rational use of N fertilizers are indicated below:
Fertilizer N (urea) application should be invariably balanced not only with P and K but also with deficient secondary and
micronutrients.
Soil test-based fertilizer prescriptions have to be adopted. Farmers should insist for S and micronutrient testing, as NPK
alone (without S and micronutrients) is no longer balanced fertilizer prescription.
Neem oil coated urea should be preferred over pilled urea, especially for basal dressing.
Losses of N are usually less when urea is top-dressed before irrigation.
Modified N scheduling using leaf color chart (LCC) gives better N use efficiency in crops. LCC-based real-time N
application needs to be promoted in the crops (like rice and wheat) for which LCC thresholds are available.

27-07-2015 03:17

Avoid Indiscriminate Use of Urea

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Conjoint use of organic manures and fertilizers may help curtailing the application of fertilizers including that of urea.
Inclusion of legumes may curtail fertilizer N (urea) requirement by 25-50%. Depending on cropping system and availability
of irrigation, legumes could be introduced as catch crop, green manures, forage crop, break crop or as short duration grain
crop.
*Dr B S Dwivedi is head, Division of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New
Delhi
(PIB Features)
Email: - featuresunit@gmail.com
himalaya@nic.in
SS-307/SF-307/ 26.03.2015
YSK/ Uma

27-07-2015 03:17