ACP 407: Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition
Soil fertility verses productivity, major, secondary and trace elements in plant
nutrition; nutrient uptake and translocation mechanism in plants; plant responses to
nutrient levels, nutrient deficiencies and their diagnosis and prognosis; sources of
plant nutrients in soils and factors affecting their availability, rhizosphere chemistry;
Nutritional physiology; nutrient interactions and genetics of plant nutrition; fertilizers
and manures; lime and liming; microbial cycling of plant nutrients, roles of organic
matter in soil fertility; maintenance of soil fertility under continuous cultivation.
Soil fertility verses productivity___1
Soil Fertility
The ability of a soil to sustain plant growth by providing essential plant nutrients
and favourable chemical, physical, and biological characteristics as a habitat for
plant growth, is referred as Soil Fertility
Types of Soil Fertility
1 Natural or Inherent fertility:
The soil naturally contains all essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus
etc, thus it is natural or inherent fertility.
2 Acquired fertility:
The soil has this type of fertility because artificial fertilizers, manures or other
amendments are applied to soil so as improve its fertility is referred to as acquired
fertility
Page | 1
Soil fertility encompasses physical, chemical and biological properties. It involves
interactions between soil properties and different soil elements (mineral, water, air and
biota)
Characteristics of a Fertile Soil
The characteristics of fertile soil are as follows:
a, Contains all basic nutrients i.e., nitrogen, potassium and other minerals such
as boron, iron, copper, zinc necessary for plant and growth survival.
b, Has a pH in the range of 6.0 to 6.8
c, Has a large amount of topsoil
d, Has a diversity of microbes, which helps in plant growth
e, Has organic matter which maintains the soil structure
Page | 2
f, Has capacity to retain more moisture
g, Has a depth that permits plants to grow their roots deep for nutrition
h, High cation exchange capacity
Factors Affecting Soil Fertility
1 Physical factors
i Climate, ii Soil texture, iii Soil structure, iv Water retention capacity, v electrical
conductivity, vi Bulk density
2 Chemical factors
i Soil pH, ii Cation exchange capacity, iii Plant nutrients (micronutrients,
macronutrients)
3 Biological factors
i Organic matter, ii Microorganisms, iii Soil mineralogy, iv Biogeochemical cycles
Soil Productivity
Potential of soil to produce a definite yield of crops using some management
system is referred to soil productivity.
For a soil to be considered as being productive, it must possess the characteristic
of a fertile soil as stated above. A fertile soil may or may not be productive.
Plant nutrition
Plant nutrition is defined as the study of those nutrient elements that are essential
for plants to grow.
Plant nutrients: These are elements that are essential for normal growth and
reproduction of plants, they include nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, sulfur,
calcium, magnesium, boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum,
zinc and others.
Arnon and Stout (1939), established three criteria for essentiality:
1. Omission of the element in question must result in abnormal growth, failure to
complete the life cycle, or premature death of the plant.
Page | 3
2. The element must be specific, and not replaceable by another.
3. The element must exert its effect directly on growth or metabolism and not
some indirect effect such as by antagonizing another element present at a toxic
level.
Law of Minimum
According to Justus Von Liebig, a deficiency of any single nutrient is enough to
limit crop yield, that is crop yield is proportional to the amount of the most limiting
nutrient.
Classification of nutrient status or levels in plants:
Deficient: when the concentration of an essential element is low enough to
severely limit yield and distinct deficiency symptoms are visible. Extreme
deficiencies can result in plant death.
Critical range: the nutrient concentration in the plant, below which a yield
response to added nutrient occurs. Critical levels or ranges vary among plants
and nutrients, it is a transition between nutrient deficiency and sufficiency.
Sufficient: the nutrient concentration range in which added nutrient will not
increase yield , but can increase nutrient concentration.
Page | 4
The term luxury consumption is often used to describe nutrient absorption by the
plant that does not influence yield.
Excessive or toxic: when the concentration of essential or other elements is high
enough to reduce plant growth and yield. Excessive nutrient concentration can
cause an imbalance in other essential nutrients and reduce yield.
The essential plant nutrients can be categorized as macronutrients, secondary
nutrients and micronutrients. This classification is based on the relative
requirement by the plant.
Macronutrients are needed in large amounts, and large quantities have to be
applied, if the soil is deficient in one or more of them. These includes: nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen
Secondary nutrients are required is lesser amounts, these are calcium,
magnesium, sulfur
Micronutrients are required in very small amounts: A deficiency of one
micronutrient can limit the growth of the crop to the same extent as a
deficiency in macronutrients do: These includes: boron, iron, manganese, zinc,
copper, molybdenum, chlorine
Page | 5
