Assessing Multi-Micronutrients Deficiency in Agricultural Soils of India

Arvind Kumar Shukla, Sanjib Kumar Behera, Chandra Prakash, Ashok Kumar Patra, Ch Srinivasa Rao, Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Soumitra Das, Anil Kumar Singh and Andrew Green
Additional contact information
Arvind Kumar Shukla: ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal 462038, India
Sanjib Kumar Behera: ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal 462038, India
Chandra Prakash: ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal 462038, India
Ashok Kumar Patra: ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal 462038, India
Ch Srinivasa Rao: ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Telangana 500030, India
Suresh Kumar Chaudhari: Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi 110012, India
Soumitra Das: International Zinc Association, New Delhi 110062, India
Anil Kumar Singh: Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi 110012, India
Andrew Green: International Zinc Association, Durham, NC 27713, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-19

Abstract: The deficiencies of nutrient elements and inappropriate nutrient management practices in agricultural soils of the world is one of the reasons for low crop productivity, reduced nutritional quality of agricultural produce, and animal/human malnutrition. We carried out the present study to evaluate the single and multi-nutrient deficiencies of sulfur (S) and micronutrients (zinc (Zn), boron (B), iron (Fe), copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn)) in agricultural soils of India for their effective management to achieve sustainable crop production, improved nutritional quality in crops and better animal/human health. Altogether, 24,2827 surface soil samples (0 to 15 cm depth) were collected from the agriculture fields of 615 districts in 28 states of India and were analyzed for available S and micronutrient concentration. The concentration of available S and micronutrients varied widely. There were variable and widespread deficiencies of S and micronutrients in different states. The deficiencies of S, Zn and B were higher compared to the deficiencies of Fe, Cu and Mn. There were occurrences of two-nutrient (namely S + Zn, Zn + B, S + B, Zn + Fe Zn + Mn, S + Fe, Zn + Cu and Fe + B), three-nutrient (namely S + Zn + B, S + Zn + B and Zn + Fe + B) and four-nutrient (namely Zn + Fe + Cu + Mn and Zn + Fe + Cu + Mn + B) deficiencies in different extents. This information could be used by various stakeholders for production, supply and application of the right kind of fertilizers in different districts, states and agro-ecological regions of India for better crop production, crop nutritional quality, nutrient use efficiency and soil and environmental health. This will also help in a greater way to address the issue of malnutrition in human/animals.

Keywords: micronutrients; available sulfur; tropical soil; soil health; human health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/9136/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/9136/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:16:p:9136-:d:614898

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().