Crop micronutrients are vital for the growth of plants and various other metabolic activities. Crop Micronutrients play a significant role in improving taste, color, quality, and absorbing fertilizers, using water efficiently, and helping in disease resistance. Not just that, they also help in the growth and development of large and strong roots, promote better plant immunity and facilitate in building complete proteins & compounds.
“Micronutrients are essential for plant growth and for ensuring balanced crop nutrition. Deficiency of any one of the micronutrients in the soil can limit growth,” says Subhash Chandra, Managing Director, Kingdao Agrochem.
“The global micronutrients market is moderately consolidated with no major players accounting for a very high market share. In terms of geography, Asia Pacific is a major regional market and is characterized by the growing agriculture industry, especially in India and China,” he adds.
The Indian agriculture sector is not only one of the most economical sectors for the nation’s GDP but the country is the largest in terms of generating revenue in agriculture in the Asia Pacific region. The farmers are keeping forth the demand for higher-yielding crops that is further fuelling the Indian agricultural micronutrients markets growth in the next 5 years.
Owing to the surge in the use of soil testing as well as plant analyses, micronutrient deficiencies have been verified in many soils. However, a few of the factors limiting the incidental additions of micronutrients include:
• high-yield crop demands actually remove micronutrients from the soil
• the surge in the use of high-analysis NPK fertilizers which comprise lower quantities of micronutrient contaminants
• advancement in fertilizer technology that decreases the residual addition of micronutrients.
Application of micronutrients with mixed fertilizers
Although one of the methods of application of micronutrients is soil application for crops, the application rates that are recommended are often less than ten lb per acre. Hence, the uniform application of micronutrient sources separately in the field is not easy. The fluid NPK fertilizers, as well as granular, are utilized as carriers of micronutrients. Furthermore, combining micronutrients along with mixed fertilizers is an easy method of application and lets more uniform distribution with conventional application equipment.
4 methods of applying micronutrients with mixed fertilizers include mixing with granular fertilizers during the process of manufacturing and it results in uniform distribution of micronutrients throughout granular NPK fertilizers.
Bulk blending with granular fertilizers helps in producing fertilizers grades that provide the recommended micronutrient rates. However, unfortunately, owing to nutrient segregation results in uneven nutrient distribution.
Lastly, Coating powdered micronutrients on granular NPK fertilizers will help in decreasing the possibility of segregation.
Mixing micronutrients with fluid fertilizers has emerged as one of the popular methods of micronutrient application. Remember that the compatibility tests should be conducted prior to tank-mixing operations of micronutrients with fluid fertilizers, while Suspension fertilizers are used as micronutrient carriers as well.
Foliar spray
Although it is not a substitute for healthy soil, it can be leveraged when plants are suffering due to nutrient deficiencies and Foliar spray comprises applying fertilizer directly to the leaves of the plants' leaves. The merits of foliar sprays such as Application rates are lower compared to rates for soil application.
The road ahead
“Government’s ambition to wake India’s agriculture sector from slumber led to the adoption of micro-irrigation and Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) practices. In 2015 through the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), it saw the potential of implementing micro-irrigation over almost 70 mn ha by 2025,” says Randhir Chauhan, MD, Netafim India and Senior Vice President, Netafim Ltd.
“According to the Economic Survey, the 2020 yield has increased to 20- 30% and water-saving up to 50% due to the implementation of micro-irrigation practices. Additionally, focus on implementing INM to maintain the soil fertility will help provide an optimum level of nutrients to the plants, improve aeration, water drainage, and retention capacity of the soil for sustaining the desired productivity,” he adds.
The surge in demand for organic fertilizers coupled with synthetic micronutrients sources is also facilitating the Indian agricultural micronutrients market growth. Furthermore, research & technological advancements are other major factors responsible for market growth. The use of agricultural micronutrients increases the yield rate in crops; thus, it leads to the rise of incomes of the farmers, which is predicted to proliferate the Indian agricultural market growth over the forecast period. Lastly, fertilizers which are responsible and important for protecting the crops from insects, UV rays are also anticipated to enhance the overall growth of the Indian agricultural micronutrients market during the forecast period - until 2027.