Phosphorus Management In Crop Production

The world population is projected to reach nine billion by 2050, and in the coming years, global food demand is expected to increase by 50% or more. Higher crop productivity gains in the future will have to be achieved in developing countries through better natural resources management and crop improvement. After nitrogen, phosphorus (P) has more widespread influence on both natural and agricultural ecosystems than any other essential plant element. It has been estimated that 5.7 billion hectares of land worldwide contain insufficient amounts of available P for sustainable crop production, and P deficiency in crop plants is a widespread problem in various parts of the world. However, it has been estimated that worldwide minable P could last less than 40 years. For sustaining future food supplies, it is vital to enhance plant P use efficiency. To bring the latest knowledge and research advances in efficient management of P for economically viable and environmentally beneficial crop production in sustainable agriculture, Phosphorus Management in Crop Production contains chapters covering functions and diagnostic techniques for P requirements in crop plants, P use efficiency and interactions with other nutrients in crop plants, management of P for optimal crop production and environmental quality, and basic principles and methodology regarding P nutrition in crop plants. The majority of research data included are derived from many years of field, greenhouse, and lab work, hence the information is practical in nature and will have a significant impact on efficient management of P-fertilizers to enhance P use efficiency, improve crop production, promote sustainable agriculture, and reduce P losses through eluviations, leaching, and erosion to minimize environmental degradation. A comprehensive book that combines practical and applied information, Phosphorus Management in Crop Production is an excellent reference for students, professors, agricultural research scientists, food scientists, agricultural extension specialists, private consultants, fertilizer companies, and government agencies that deal with agricultural and environmental issues.

Sustainable crop production aims at maintaining high crop yield without adversely affecting ecosystems to meet the need of current as well as future generations. In order to meet the increasing world population agricultural production and productivity need to parallel increased. Since phosphorus (P) in agriculture is the second most growth limiting macronutrient after nitrogen, its proper management in soil contributes significantly to sustainable crop production. Despite its importance for normal plant growth and metabolism, P is one of the least accessible nutrients. Phosphorus is a macronutrient that plays a number of important roles in plants, and is fundamental for the efficient use of nitrogen fertilizer. The maximum uptake rate of phosphorus by plants occurs around flowering but its accumulation continues until maturity. Adequate phosphorus results in higher grain production, improved crop quality, greater stalk strength, increased root growth, and earlier crop maturity. For over one hundred years, phosphorus has been applied to crops as fertilizer-first as ground bone and now as some chemical reaction product of ground rock. Yet, for all that experience, its management cannot be taken for granted.Phosphorus Management in Crop Production presents in-depth coverage of soil and climatic factors that affect P availability and diagnostic techniques for P requirements by different crops as well as provide up-to-date information on the function of P in crop plants and methods to identify P use efficient field crops practices that could enhance P use efficiency.Definitive chapters cover sustainable phosphorus management in agriculture, soil order and management practices control soil phosphorus fractions, does balanced phosphorus fertilization sustain high herbage yields and phosphorus contents in alternately grazed and mown pastures, P use efficiency and interactions with other nutrients in crop plants, management of P for optimal crop production and environmental quality, phosphorus cycling in Montreal's food and urban agriculture systems and basic principles and methodology regarding P nutrition in crop plants. This work is a comprehensive guide for students, lecturers, practitioners, food scientists, agricultural extension specialists, private consultants, fertilizer companies, and government agencies that deal with agricultural and environmental issues.

The title ‘Phosphorus in Agriculture: 100 % Zero’ is synonymous for make-or-break. And it stands up to the promise. This book sends an important message as it delivers background information, intrinsic hypotheses, validation approaches and legal frameworks, all for balanced phosphorus fertilization in agriculture. This implies firstly that the phosphorus requirement of crop is fully satisfied by applying exclusively fertilizers which contain the nutrient in completely available form. Secondly, environmental demands through eutrophication and hazardous contaminants must not be compromised. The book identifies equally knowledge gaps and deficits in the transformation and implementation of research into practice. Bottom line is that research delivers the tools for a sustainable phosphorus management while legal frameworks are insufficient.

This book was written by undergraduate students at The Ohio State University (OSU) who were enrolled in the class Introduction to Environmental Science. The chapters describe some of Earth's major environmental challenges and discuss ways that humans are using cutting-edge science and engineering to provide sustainable solutions to these problems. Topics are as diverse as the students, who represent virtually every department, school and college at OSU. The environmental issue that is described in each chapter is particularly important to the author, who hopes that their story will serve as inspiration to protect Earth for all life.

Using the Chesapeake Bay as a case study, Agriculture and Phosphorus Management discusses the impact and management of phosphorus in watersheds. Although urban and other sources contribute phosphorus to the Bay, the papers presented focus on how its role in agriculture impacts water quality. They review the new guidelines and legislation slated for implementation by 2002 directed towards sustainable nutrient management and strategies for implementing them. Phosphorus, an essential element for plant and animal growth, has long been recognized as necessary to eliminate deficiencies and to maintain profitable crop and livestock production. It can increase the biological productivity of surface waters by accelerating eutrophication. Human activities accelerate the rate of eutrophication - principally by increasing the rate at which phosphorus enters the aquatic system. Written by experts from a range of disciplines Agriculture and Phosphorus Management provides a deeper understanding of the diverse, dynamic, and complex factors controlling the impact of agricultural phosphorus management on production and water quality. Each contributor addresses the questions: what do we know, what do we still need to know, where are the major gaps in our knowledge, and how does the information relate to phosphorus management strategies in the Bay Watershed, and other watersheds? As a result this series of papers provides a unique collection of information of regional, national, and international significance and gives prioritized phosphorus management options for not only the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, but for watersheds around the world.

Phosphorus (P) stands second to nitrogen in terms of its essentiality as a plant macronutrient, as well as due to its involvement in almost all plant developmental stages, primary and secondary plant metabolisms, maintenance of membrane structures, and in the structural skeleton of major biomolecules. An optimum P-supply also helps plants combat abiotic stress impacts. Most P in soil remains unavailable for uptake by plants. P-containing fertilizers are being added to agricultural lands to sustain high yields. Only the least amount of the applied P (20%–30%) is used by most cultivated plants, and the rest remains as legacy P (P surpluses), which eventually causes eutrophication. This book, Phosphorus in Soils and Plants, reviews P in soils and plants, P dynamics in the soil–water–sediment environment, the major roles of P in the photosynthetic dark phase-biochemical pathways, major approaches for the sustainable management of P in agriculture, main mechanisms underlying the role of P in the regulation of plant–microbe interactions in the rhizosphere, literature on the role of microbial phosphate solubilization in management of soil and plant nutrients, and insights into P recovery through waste transformation. This volume is an important resource for plant biologists involved in teaching or research who wish to advance their knowledge of P in soils and plants.