Natural vs Chemical Fertilizers
Knowing the difference between Natural and Chemical Fertilizers is important as the concern for organic products and the awareness about it among consumers are very high than ever before. Fertilizer is a substance that is applied to plants to supplement nutrients needed for growth and production. This fertilizer can be divided into two major groups as mentioned above . They are natural fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer or chemical fertilizer. There are similarities as well as differences between natural and chemical fertilizers. This article intends to discuss the characteristics and differences between natural and chemical fertilizers.
What is Natural Fertilizer?
Natural fertilizer (a.k.a organic fertilizer) includes biodegradable compounds such as green manure, animal waste and compost. In other words, application of any natural organism or element for the improvement of soil fertility is referred as the natural fertilizer. Natural fertilizers release chemicals slowly to the soil. Therefore, they are suitable for long-term crops such as perennials. On the other hand, natural fertilizers are enriched with micronutrients other than macronutrients. At present micronutrients are a limitation factor of the fertilizer application. Therefore, there is a high demand for organic fertilizer. On the other hand, natural fertilizers include more nutrients together. Also, natural fertilizer minimizes the negative environmental impacts. Natural fertilizers are cheaper than artificial fertilizer. They have minimum health hazards. Therefore, they are applicable in environmentally sensitive areas, such as home gardens. Since organic fertilizer improves the soil texture and the water holding capacity of the soil, it prevents soil erosion.
What is Chemical fertilizer?
Chemical fertilizer is synthetic fertilizer that is made out of non-degradable elements. This fertilizer comprises with one or two essential growth nutrients. It releases chemicals quickly. Therefore, this is suitable for fast growing crops or annual crops. During the manufacturing process chemical fertilizer incorporates with acids, which causes environmental hazards. Urea, MOP ( muriate of potash), superphosphate and diammonium phosphate are frequently used in crop cultivation. There are some disadvantages of chemical fertilizer. Some of them are excessive in vegetation growth (eutrophication ), they increase the acidity of the soil and inhibit the microbial growth in soil. On the other hand, some plants cease their fruit setting due to excessive nutrient availability. There are advantages of chemical fertilizer as well. It ensures the uniform application all over the field. It can immediately recover nutrient deficiency in plants. Also, chemical fertilizer can precise the required quantity of fertilizer for a plant (for economical purposes).
What is the difference between Natural and Chemical Fertilizers?
- Chemical fertilizer and organic fertilizer are branches of fertilizer. Their common feature is providing nutrients to plants. Therefore, both of them improve the productivity of soil.
- Natural fertilizers such as manure, animal waste, and compost are considered as organic fertilizer. Fertilizers that synthesize are chemical fertilizers.
- Natural fertilizer includes several nutrients together while chemical or artificial fertilizer incorporates only one or two nutrient.
- On the other hand, natural fertilizer is rich with micronutrients but, chemical fertilizer lacks micro-nutrients.
- There are some advantages of natural or organic fertilizer. They are environmental friendly, improve the soil texture and water holding capacity, minimize the soil erosion and have some alternative benefits such as enhancing microbial growth and applicable as a mulch.
- Chemical fertilizer releases nutrients faster. Therefore, it is suitable for fast growing crops like annual crops. It ensures the uniform application of nutrients all over the field. It can immediately recover nutrient deficiency of a plant.
- Disadvantages of chemical fertilizer include eutrophication, inhibition of microbial growth and increasing acidity of the soil. Also, natural fertilizer has disadvantages including, slow releasing of nutrients and difficult to precise the quality and the quantity of available nutrients.
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