ABSTRACT
University (TNAU) .....................................................................................154 6.3 Fertigation with Water Soluble Fertilizers in Banana (cv. Nendran) ..........162 6.4 Summary .....................................................................................................170 Keywords ..............................................................................................................171 References .............................................................................................................172 Appendix I ............................................................................................................174
An approach for efficient utilization of water and fertilizers is necessary for agriculture in the twenty-first century. In other words, fertigation is addition of fertilizers to irrigation water and application via drip or similar micro irrigation system [29]. Fertigation provides Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium as well as the essential trace elements (Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mo, Mn) directly to the active root zone, thus minimizing the loss of expensive nutrients, which ultimately helps in improving productivity and quality of farm produce. Fertigation is by far the most common, and in some cases the only method of fertilizing the green houses, orchard, vegetables and drip irrigated field crops such as cotton, maize etc. The characteristics of fertilizers suitable for fertigation [6, 13] are listed below:
