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Introduction
Fertilizers plays vital role in high yield production, crop growth. nutrients supplied to plant or crop are completely utilized due to several reasons including leaching through rains or due to usage of excess water for crops. Some of them are undergoing volatilizations also and it leads to environmental problems such as ground water pollution, green house gas emissions etc. Development of water soluble, slow-release, efficient, fertilizers have become very important. Simultaneously, the rapid development of fertilizer manufacturing has created new opportunities to feasibly obtain and use soluble, slow release fertilizers1. Water soluble fertilizers(WSF) were introduced in India in1990s. Up to 2005, their usage was very less. World population increasing day by day. To feed these population modern technologies required in Agricultural sector. WSF are more efficient than traditional fertilizer to balance this factor2.
Water soluble fertilizers (WSFs)
WSFs dissolve completely in water. WSFs having low salt index and they do not show adverse effect on plant tissues3. WSFs are suitable for both foliar and fertigation process. WSFs are mostly used in drip irrigation. The WSFs applied through drip irrigation (Fertigation) and foliar application enhances the nutrient use efficiency, uptake efficiency and uptake speed of the nutrients contained therein. right fertilizer application in the right time will give more benefits and good yield4-5. These are mostly combination of N, P , K Ca & Mg & S with micronutrients with different ratios. The applied fertilizers are not fully utilized by the plants and due to this reason the uptake of necessary nutrient elements becomes difficult for the plant. Based on the reports & investigations available, use of water soluble fertilizers recorded the highest growth rates6. The growth control and quality of crop are based on effective Fertilizer management. It lessens the ground water pollution which causes ecological disturbances and health risks by fertilizer leaching and accumulation of nitrates. Water soluble fertilizers through fertigation resulted in higher yield7-8.
Nutrients are applied along with the irrigation water and opens new possibilities for controlling water and nutrient supplies to crops besides maintaining the desired concentration and distribution of water and nutrients to the soil9-10. The fertilizer absorption takes place through the stomata of the leaves and also through the epidermis.
A small amount of nutrients from dilute solutions...