The use of renewable resources and inputs is one of the fundamental principles of sustainable agriculture that enables maximum crop productivity and minimal environmental risk. Nutrient management may be achieved by the involvement of organic sources, bio-fertilizers, and micro-nutrients. Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers to achieve high yield and to compensate for lack of nutrients an...

Increasing diffuse nitrate loading of surface waters and groundwater has emerged as a major problem in many agricultural areas of the world, resulting in contamination of drinking water resources in aquifers as well as eutrophication of freshwaters and coastal marine ecosystems. Although empirical correlations between application rates of N fertilizers to agricultural soils and nitrate contamin...

Vegetables and fruits are an important part of a healthy food diet, however, the eco-sustainability of the production of these can still be significantly improved. European farmers and consumers spend an estimated €15.5 billion per year on inorganic fertilizers and the production of N-fertilizers results in a high carbon footprint. We investigated if fertilizer type and medium constituents dete...

The water fern Azolla harbors nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae as symbiont in its dorsal leaves and is known as potent N2 fixer. Present investigation was carried out to study the influence of fresh Azolla when used as basal incorporation in soil and as dual cropped with rice variety Mahsoori separately and together with and without chemical nitrogen fertilizer in pots kept under...

An understanding of the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) as affected by farming practices is imperative for maintaining soil productivity and mitigating global warming. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of long-term fertilization on SOC and SOC fractions for the whole soil profile (0-100 cm) in northwest China. The study was initiated in 1979 in Gansu, China and ...

introduction since discovery of food, clothing and shelter, human wanted to improve their physical sufferings, and using experience separated toxic plants from non – toxic ones and medicinal herbs from non – medicine. medicinal herbs are agricultural products which have a very important role in the health of people in society. among the medicinal herbs, fennel with scientific name (foeniculum v...

Using static chambers and gas chromatography, nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from an apple orchard soil in the Bohai Bay region of China were measured from February 2010 to February 2011. In this study, two nitrogen (N) fertilizer treatments were designed--without (CK) or with (SN) synthetic N fertilizers (800 kg N ha(-1)). The annual cumulative N2O emissions from CK and SN were 34.6 ± 3.0 (mean ± ...

ABSTRACT- To investigate the effects of bio-chemical and organic fertilizers on yield and seeds NPK contents of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca), an experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of Kurdistan University in 2009 growing season. Treatments were included 1) control, 2) seeds inoculated with free-living N fixing bacteria (NFB), 3) seeds inoculated with phosphate-solubilizing b...