Phosphorus (P), next to nitrogen, is often the most limiting nutrient for crop and forage production. Phosphorus' primary role in a plant is to store and transfer energy produced by photosynthesis for use in growth and reproductive processes. Soil P cycles in a variety forms in the soil

1. Soil p levels in vegetable production systems in
Nuwara Eliya
Group members
2017T00102
2017T00168
2017T00165
2017T00140

2. Introduction
❑ Phosphorus is one of the major plant nutrients in the soil.
❑ It’s a constituent of plant cell, essential for cell division and development
of the growing tip of the plant. For this reason it is vital for seedlings and
young plant.
❑ Plant root take up nearly all P as either the primary or secondary
orthophosphate anion (H2PO4
-, HPO4
-2).
❑ Primary orthophosphate is the form that is dominant in acid soils and is
taken up about 10 times as reading as the secondary orthophosphate form.
❑ However, it is the fact that most of the P present in soil is immediately
unavailable to plant.

3. Importance of Phosphorus in vegetable crop
❑Phosphorus is the nutrient responsible for plant rooting.
❑This is main ingredient in bloom-booster fertilizer.
❑Phosphorus reduce nitrogen-the nutrient that support green growth and
potassium in favour of phosphorus to induce flowering.
❑ phosphorus is the nutrient responsible for fruiting .

4. Soil p levels in Nuwara Eliya
❑ In Sri Lankan condition, farmers usually use higher amount of synthetic
phosphorus fertilizers especially in nuwara eliya for intensive upcountry
vegetable cultivation.
❑ The excessive amount are responsible for soil and ground water pollution
and affect the vegetable production.
❑ High P concentration in water leads to Eutrophication in water.

5. • Long term continues applications of P fertilizers and other P sources are
cause P accumulation in surface soil in nuwara Eliya.
• The result show that total P in the surface soil ranged from 1108 to 4587
31 mg/kg with organic P & active P constitutions only about 20 & 50%
total P respectively.
• All the soil tested in have exceed the safe limit of 30 -40 ppm ( badulla,
bandarawela , nuwara Eliya and welimada )
• Therefore, Farmers have to be educated to test the available p in the soil
before application of p fertilizers & avoid possible health hazard in the
nuwaraliya area.