MICRONUTRIENT MANAGEMENT FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTION OF MAJOR FODDER CROPS – A REVIEW

MICRONUTRIENT MANAGEMENT FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTION OF MAJOR FODDER CROPS-A REVIEW
CHARAN SINGH1*, BHAGAT SINGH, SATPAL, PRAMOD KUMAR, ANKUSH, MANOJ KUMAR GORA AND ANIL KUMAR
Department of Soil Science,Department of Agronomy,
Forage Section, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004, Haryana, India
*(e-mail : charansinghhau1997@gmail.com)
(Received : 14 September 2019; Accepted : 26 September 2019

SUMMARY

At present time, scope to increase area under forage crops cultivated is limited; the reason is increasing day by day pressure and preference of people for food and commercial crops. But India is a home to about 512 million livestock population also. Hence, the per unit production of fodder crops should be increased to feed this huge livestock population. Growth, development and biological yield of the crops affected by the balanced use of fertilizers shows positive effects over use of nutrients in single and in combination. Importance of micronutrients for upholding soil health and boosting crops productivity is well known. A very small amount of these micronutrients is required. For desired growth and development of plants the soil must supply micronutrients. Adoption of HYVs (high yielding varieties) results increased removal of micronutrients and intensive cropping results in high application of NPK fertilizers which is the reason behind below normal level of micronutrients in soil at which sustainable crop productivity cannot be achieved. Zinc and iron play an important role in crop nutrition and thought to be necessary for plant development and production, as their role in plant auxins bio-synthesis, oxidation-reduction reactions, plant nitrogen metabolism, formation of chlorophyll, respiration, chief enzyme system and photosynthesis in plants. Economical and efficient way of getting micronutrients into the crop production system is application of fertilizers having micronutrients through soil which requires higher quantity of micronutrients as compare to foliar application. The method of foliar application is broadly used in many crops. Soluble salts are mainly used for foliar sprays. Deficiency symptoms can be corrected within few days by foliar application of micronutrients and at time of new crop sowing the appropriate micronutrients source is applied to the soil

Key words:Forage crops, micronutrients, foliar application, soil application, fertilizers, HYVs

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