Fertigation for Environmentally Friendly Fertilizers Application: Constraints and Opportunities for Its Application in Developing Countries

There is an increasing concern about agriculture’s role in polluting the environment which makes farmers feel guilty about using fertilizers. Fertigation is proposed as a panacea to this dilemma, which by this practice reaffirms the principles of 4Rs which are the right source, at the right rate, right time and right place. The aim of this study was to explore constraints and opportunities for its application in developing countries for environmentally friendly fertilizers application. It is a review of literature from government reports, legislature and published material on fertilization and irrigation initiatives of developing countries which include Rwanda, Nepal, Suriname, Zambia, Panama, Tanzania, Sri Lanka and South Sudan in addition to the case presented of China during the “2016 Environmentally Friendly Fertilizer Production, Application and Demonstration from Developing Countries” training course. The study found that in developing countries there is potential to apply fertigation as a way of environmentally friendly fertilizers application as it has been adopted in China. These opportunities include the following: Abundant natural resources like land and water, less polluted environment, conducive agricultural policies, zero duties levied on imported irrigation equipment. How to cite this paper: Kabirigi, M., Prakash, S.O., Prescella, B.V., Niamwiza, C., Quintin, S.P., Mwamjengwa, I.A., Jayantha, A.M., Keji, M.L.A. and Zhang, C.L. (2017) Fertigation for Environmentally Friendly Fertilizers Application: Constraints and Opportunities for Its Application in Developing Countries. Agricultural Sciences, 8, 292301. https://doi.org/10.4236/as.2017.84021 Received: February 2, 2017 Accepted: April 27, 2017 Published: April 30, 2017 Copyright © 2017 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/