Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition

This course deals about basic concepts of soil fertility and plant nutrition, the historical development of soil fertility and plant nutrition as discipline, soil fertility and productivity, principles of soil fertility management, policies for effective plant nutrition; soil fertility and food production, soils as a basis for food production, role of soil fertility in food production,soilfertilitydegradationandfoodproduction,soilfertilitymanagementtechniquesforsustainable food production and organic resources use and management in Ethiopia; factors affecting soil fertility and plant growth with emphasis on soil fertility and determinant factors,nutritional factors affecting plant growth and soil factors affecting nutrient bioavailability;plantrootsandnutrientuptakeprocesses,plantrootsandsoilrelations,mineral nutrition and plant growth, mechanisms of nutrient uptake, role of soil colloids in nutrient supply, exchange, availability and absorption of ions by plants, physiology aspects of plant nutrition, factors affecting nutrient element concentrations, loss and removal of nutrients from soil and its management and soil nutrient cycling; essential plant nutrients in detail about criteria for essentiality of plant nutrients, essential plant nutrients and their classification, nature, sources and function of essential plant nutrients, availability of essential plant nutrients and deficiency symptom of essential plant nutrients; the principles of fertilizer application and management focusing on the types of fertilizers, application and management of fertilizers, determinants of plant fertilizer requirement, methods of fertilizers application, effect of fertilizer on the environment, and the use of beneficial microorganisms for nutrient supply; integrated soil fertility management, its history, importance, components, integration and application; soil fertility evaluation and diagnosis give emphasis to sampling for soil and plant analysis, diagnostic and evaluation methods, calibrationof soil test against crop response and fertilizer recommendation based on soil fertility evaluation.