Question

Explain how fertilizers are different from manure.

Answer 1

Hint: Manures are in general heavy sources of organic matters. It supplies nutrients in small quantities and organic matter in large quantities. We can find Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) in considerable amounts in fertilizers.

Complete Answer:
- Manures and fertilizers can be differentiated based on the following parameters. They can be related with their respective meaning, modes of preparation, humus content, absorption, nutrients, storage and cost.
- We already know that manure is a natural substance obtained by the decomposed animal wastes whereas fertilizers are human-made inorganic salts or organic compounds.
Manures can be prepared at homes or fields. On the other hand, the fertilizers can be made only in factories.
- Manure adds a great amount of organic matter in the form of humus in soil. But fertilizers don’t add any humus in the soil.
- The nutrients present in manure are absorbed slowly by the crop plants since manure is not soluble in water. They exist in a ‘locked-state’ inside the organic compounds of manure. Being soluble in water, fertilizers are readily absorbed in crop plants.
- A manure is not nutrient specific, and it tends to remove the general deficiency of soil. Whereas, fertilizers are nutrient specific and only provide Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium according to the need.
- Manure is voluminous and bulky and hence are inconvenient to store, handle and apply to the crop. On the other hand, fertilizers are compact and concentrated so they are easy to store, transport and apply to the crop.
- As the manures are generally prepared in homes or fields, they are comparatively cheap. But factory-made fertilizers are expensive.

Note: The nutrients in manures get released slowly as being unable to fulfil the high and rapid demand of nutrients required by improved high-yielding hybrid varieties of crops. Moreover, they are not nutrient specific, and hence are not much useful when a particular nutrient is required in the soil for a particular crop. Fertilizers generally get washed off through excessive water and end up destroying the ecosystem. They get washed up and flow to water bodies which become unfit for human consumption and even kill the aquatic animals inside.