The document discusses nutrient management practices in organic farming. It outlines several key practices: crop rotation to replenish soil nutrients; cover cropping and green manures to fix nitrogen; compost and farmyard manure addition to improve soil structure and nutrient content; application of crop residues; and use of biofertilizers to stimulate plant growth. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize soil and plant health without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Nutrient management in organic systems focuses on maintaining soil nutrient levels and biology through these natural practices.

1. Nutrient Management
In
Organic Farming
Muneeb Ur Rehman

2.  Crop rotation.
 Cover cropping.
 Addition of compost/FYM.
 Application of green manures.
 Application of crop residues.
 Supplemental application of organically approved amendments.
 Use of biofertilizers.
Nutrient management practices

3.  An ecological production management system that promotes and
enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity.
 It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and management
practices that restore, maintain or enhance ecological harmony.
 The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and
productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants,
animals and people.
 In simple words, it is a practice that does not use or limit the use of
any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).
What is Organic farming/Agriculture

5.  The management of nutrients in organic farming systems
presents a formidable challenge, as using inorganic fertilizers is
not permitted.
 Therefore, organic must optimize a range of soil, crop rotation
and manure management to ensure a nutrient supply that will
guarantee optimum crop yields and minimize environmental
losses.
 To achieve this objective, an appreciation of the nutrient cycles
in farming systems is essential which is possible through various
practices.
Nutrient Management

6. Crop rotation is a key aspect of sustainable organic
farming. Different crop types have different nutrient
requirements.
After every season, the soil has to be enriched with the
nutrients that have been taken up by the previous crop,
or a sustainable method would be to grow such crop
types in the same plot, but which have a different
nutrient requirement than the previous crop. This, in
effect, ensures that the soil is always enriched with the
essential nutrients.
The rotation of crops also ensures that certain types of
pests are controlled as the crop rotation will break the
life cycle of the pests as certain crop types are
inherently unfavorable to pests.
Crop rotation

7.  Cover crops are crops grown to improve the farming
system.
 Tools for increasing fertility and controlling weeds,
pathogens, and insects in organic crops.
 Cover crops can also generate additional income when
grown for seed or feed, or as an energy crop.
 Non-leguminous cover crops, typically grasses or small
grains, do not fix nitrogen but can effectively recover
mineralized nitrogen from the soil after crops are harvested.
 When legume or grass cover crops are killed and
incorporated into the soil, living microorganisms in the soil
go to work to decompose plant residues.
 The biomass nitrogen is mineralized and converted first to
ammonium (NH4 ) and then to nitrate compounds (NO3 )
that plant roots can take up and use.
Cover Crops

8. Application of compost/FYM
A biological process that requires careful monitoring of
air and moisture levels in compost piles or windrows to
produce specific temperature ranges that promote the
growth of beneficial microorganisms.
Regularly adding compost is one of the best ways to
enhance soil’s organic and humic content, which helps
build a fertile soil structure.
Populations of microorganisms that make soil come
alive with productivity and enable plants to battle
diseases and pests thrive in such an environment.
A way to recycle manures and plant residues that
otherwise might present some environmental problems.
Soil with 4% OM contains 1814kg of total
nitrogen/acre.

9. Compost nutrient cycle

10. Application of green manure
A practice of plowing or turning into the
soil undecomposed green plant tissues for
the purpose of improving soil fertility.
Objective: To add organic matter into the
soil and, thus, enrich it with ‘N’, the most
important and deficient nutrient.
Types
Green manure
Green leaf manure

11. Green Manure
When green manure crops are grown in the field itself
either as a pure crop or as an intercrop with the main crop
and buried in the same field, it is known as Green
manuring.
Green manuring is growing in field plants usually
belonging to the leguminous family and incorporated into
the soil after sufficient growth.
The most important green manure crops are sunn hemp,
dhaincha, pillipesara, cluster beans and Sesbania rostrata.
Advantages
1.Improves soil structure
2.Increases water holding capacity and
3.Decreases soil loss by erosion

12. Crop Age (Days) Dry matter (t/ha) N accumulated
Sesbania aculeata 60 23.2 133
Sunnhemp 60 30.6 134
Cow pea 60 23.2 74
Pillipesara 60 25.0 102
Cluster bean 50 3.2 91
Sesbania rostrata 50 5.0 96
Biomass production and N accumulation of green manure crops
Plant Scientific name
Nutrient content (%) on air dry basis
N P2O5 K
Sunhemp Crotalaria juncea 2.30 0.50 1.80
Dhaincha Sesbania aculeata 3.50 0.60 1.20
Sesbania Sesbania speciosa 2.71 0.53 2.21
Nutrient content of green manure crops

13. Green leaf Manure
Application of green leaves and twigs of
trees, shrubs and herbs collected from
elsewhere is known as green leaf manuring.
Forest tree leaves are the main sources for
green leaf manure. Plants growing in
wastelands, field bunds etc., are another
source of green leaf manure.
The important plant species useful for green
leaf manure are neem, mahua, wild indigo,
Glyricidia, Karanji (Pongamia
glabra) calotropis, avise(Sesbania
grandiflora), subabul and other shrubs.

14. Plant Scientific name
Nutrient content (%) on air dry basis
N P2O5 K
Gliricidia Gliricidia sepium 2.76 0.28 4.60
Pongania Pongamia glabra 3.31 0.44 2.39
Neem Azadirachta indica 2.83 0.28 0.35
Gulmohur Delonix regia 2.76 0.46 0.50
Peltophorum Peltophorum ferrugenum 2.63 0.37 0.50
Weeds
Parthenium Parthenium hysterophorus 2.68 0.68 1.45
Water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes 3.01 0.90 0.15
Trianthema Trianthema portulacastrum 2.64 0.43 1.30
Ipomoea Ipomoea 2.01 0.33 0.40
Calotrophis Calotropis gigantea 2.06 0.54 0.31
Cassia Cassia fistula 1.60 0.24 1.20
Nutrient content of green leaf manure
Advantages
1.Green manuring improves soil structure, increases water-holding capacity and decreases soil loss by erosion.
2.Growing green manure crops in the off-season reduces weed proliferation and growth.
3.Green manuring helps in the reclamation of alkaline soils. Root-knot nematodes can be controlled by green
manuring.

15. Application of crop residues
 Crop residues are materials left on cultivated land
after the crop has been harvested.
 Retention of crop residues after harvesting is
considered to be an effective ant erosion measure.
 Crop residues can improve soil structure, increase
organic matter content in the soil, reduce
evaporation, and help fix CO2 in the soil.
 Good residue management practices on agricultural
lands positively impact soil quality.
 This includes process wastes like groundnut shell, oil
cakes, rice husks and cobs of maize, sorghum and
cumbu.
 The greatest potential as a biomass resource appears
to be from the field residues of sorghum, maize,
soybean, cotton, sugarcane etc

16. Supplemental Application Of Organically Approved Amendments.
Soil amendments are also known as conditioners.
Improve the structure of soil and, ultimately, its ability to
deliver water, air, and nutrients to plants.
Encourage nutrient recycling by developing the innate
structure of the soil.
Organic amendments are the safest and most effective means
of promoting soil fertility.
For acidic conditions:
Apply lime but depends on crop rotation and soil conditions.
For alkali conditions:
Apply gypsum

17. Bio-fertilizers
• Biofertilizers are ready-to-use live
formulates of such beneficial
microorganisms which, on application
to seed, root or soil mobilize the
availability of nutrients by their
biological activity in particular and
help build up the micro-flora and in
turn the soil health in general.
• Use of such natural products like
biofertilizers in crop cultivation will
help safeguard the soil health and the
quality of crop products.
 Increase crop yield by 20-30%.
 Replace chemical nitrogen and
phosphorus by 25%.
 Stimulate plant growth.
 Activate the soil biologically.
 Restore natural soil fertility.
 Provide protection against
drought and some soil borne
diseases.
Benefits
 Cost effective.
 Supplement to fertilizers.
 Eco-friendly (Friendly
with nature).
 Reduces the costs of
fertilizers use, especially
regarding nitrogen and
phosphorus.
Advantages

21. Conclusion
 Optimizing soil ‘health is the foundation of organic agriculture.
 Emphasis is being placed on maintaining high levels of soil biological activity and
organic matter coupled with balanced/optimum nutrient levels.
 Organics aims to ‘feed the soil to feed the crop’ by maintaining soil biology and
nutrients at optimum levels throughout the rotation rather than the non-organic
approach of applying nutrients to feed the current crop to maximize yield.
 Organics, therefore, takes a long-term, whole farm/systems approach to nutrient
management based on regular soil tests and nutrient budgets to determine when soil
nutrients must be replaced.

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