Fertilizer management particularly for mango trees is tedious on alkaline and calcareous soil. Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Langra trees were supplied fertilizer through soil application under bimonthly nutrient application programme to ensure the continuous supply of nutrition to plants throughout the year. Fertilizer (N, P and K) was supplied five times a year at regular intervals while sk...

Nitrogen (N) is an essential and often limiting nutrient to plant growth. Maize grain yields are highly responsive to supplemental N, leading to annual application of an estimated 10 million metric tons of N fertilizer to the maize crop worldwide (FAO 2004). Nearly all cultivated maize in developed countries receives some form of N fertilizer and N use is increasing in developing countries, whe...

Despite the importance of anhydrous ammonia (AA) and urea as nitrogen (N) fertilizer sources in the United States, there have been few direct comparisons of their effects on soil nitrous oxide (NO) and nitric oxide (NO) emissions. We compared N oxide emissions, yields, and N fertilizer recovery efficiency (NFRE) in a corn ( L.) production system that used three different fertilizer practices: u...

The effect of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on switchgrass biomass production has been evaluated in a number of locations on a small-plot scale; however, field-scale information regarding switchgrass response to N and N use efficiency (NUE) in different regions of the USA is limited. Switchgrass was planted in South Dakota (SD), New York (NY), Oklahoma (OK), and Virginia (VA) in 2008 and in Iowa (IA)...

Crop production is threatened by the increased nitrogen (N) input and declining N use efficiency (NUE). Information on total N input from planted seeds/tubers, atmospheric deposition, irrigation water, crop residues, animal manure, biological N fixation, and synthetic N fertilizer and NUE based on these N inputs in China’s crop production is limited. We calculated the amount of various N inputs...

Introduction Essential mineral nutrients applied to crops are a cost to growers and, poorly managed, contaminate air and/or water resources. Over the past 30+ years, fertilizer costs (USDA, 2006) and evidence of the negative impact of fertilizer nutrient contamination of air and water resources have increased significantly (Tilman et al., 2002). Therefore, an increase in nutrient efficiency, me...

Vegetable production constitutes an important sub-sector of the agricultural economy of KwaZulu-Natal. Most vegetables are cultivated in mixed-cropping types of farming systems. The technical efficiency of vegetable based cropping systems was estimated in order to identify the potential increase in production without incurring additional costs. The factors affecting technical efficiency and con...