Types of Fertilizer Application Methods

The world is changing even as we speak. From our cultures to boundaries to dietary habits to technology, as everything appears to evolve, change has truly become the only constant. And while the contemporary changes we witness are here to stay, one thing that is timeless is the profession of farming.

For centuries now, the primary sector and farming in particular have been among the most underappreciated sectors in the world. Responsible for providing the fuel for each human endeavor and destined for decades to generate humongous employment, farming has served to be the bulwark of both global health and the growth engine.

Read along as we dive into the evolution that farming as a sector has witnessed by exploring various techniques of fertilizer application.

Broadcasting

As fancy as it sounds, it is among the most common and simplest of techniques used in the spread of fertilizers. It involves the spreading of fertilizer, say Chemical Fertilizers, by hand or by a spreader. While highly convenient, it can result in an uneven spread of the fertilizer and hence compromise the yield. With the advent of variable rate application, or VRA, fertilizers are nowadays applied in a restrained and regulated manner to ensure efficient application.

Side-Dressing

Sounds like a dessert? Not to be mistaken, side dressing is a phenomenon in which fertilizers such as NPK fertilizer are applied to the sides of plant rows to leverage the immediate uptake of nutrients. However, with the demerit of being time-consuming, side dressing now stands to be modified into injection, in which fertilizers such as NPK Fertilizer or chemical fertilizer are injected into the soil for swift uptake by roots.

Fertigation

As the name suggests (unlike what we have read above), fertigation is the application of fertilizers in tandem with irrigation. It leads to the precise delivery of nutrients to the soil and is more efficient than side dressing or broadcasting; however, it may require one to invest in a high-precision irrigation setup.

Foliar Spraying

Foliar spraying is the practice of spraying fertilizer as input directly onto the leaves of crops. This new method of fertilizer application ensures the deployment of nutrients in an efficient and effective manner and stands to be the most cost-effective setup when compared to other available alternatives. In summary, while we neither wish nor can stop the advent of technology, farming as a profession has evolved over a period of time. What is required is better integration and a higher susceptibility to change to make farming more enterprising.