1. ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND
PLANT NUTRITION
Dr. Péter Csathó

2. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
I recommend this course to my Professors who taught me the first steps and basics of this beautiful profession, and have accompanied my career with their advice and encouragement.
Sarkadi János ( )
Kádár Imre (1943- )
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

3. ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND PLANT NUTRITION
 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
2. Basic principles and methods of soil tests (30 slides)
3. Principles and methods of plant analysis 4. Types of Plant Nutrition Experiments 5. Principles and method of nutrient balance
6. Plant nutrition and environmental aspects of soil pH and lime status
7. Assessing of organic farming from the aspect of sustainable plant nutrition
8. The environmental aspects of plant nutrition 9. Heavy metal load of agricultural production related to plants nutrition
10. The basics of environmentally sound plant nutrition advisory system : Evaluation of the database of Hungarian long-term field NPK fertilization exeriments 11. The structure of environmentally sound plant nutrition advisory system 12. Comparative evaluation of the environmentally sound plant nutrition advisory system, and its application in case of some
farms

4. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND
PLANT NUTRITION

5. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
„ From all the results, which humans achieved in the last 150 years, perhaps nothing better contributed to the welfare of growth, such as the development of agriculture."
(Salmon és Hanson, 1970)
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

6. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
The cradle of Humans
The fertile crescent The volcanic cones "skirt"   "God-fertilized land" We are only modeling this process by organic and synthetic process fertilization
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

7. Fertility of soil in different historical eras
To let the land lie fallow/ itinerant agriculture / Set-aside / land cultivation / 2 field system
3 field system Black fallow, deepening plowing
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

8. Ancient greeks and Romans 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
- The comparison of the effect of poultry manure with the beef and lamb manure. - The positive effect of fallowing
- Green manuring - The yield-increasing role of legumes - The use of mineral fertilizers: marl, gypsum, lime, wood ashes. - The advantages of plants rotation
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

9. Asian cultures (China, Japan, Southeast Asia nations)
Already thousands of years ago: regular fertilization. The main reason: The population density was high and they had not fertile land reserves that could be involved into cultivation
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

10. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
In the Middle East and Holy Land They knew the importance of fertilization.   Jesus' parable of the barren fig tree
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

11. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

12. The densely populated Netherlands
in the 1500s they had a brisk trade with manure fertilizer (Dreakhandel) Italy : In collection of manures
Paris: dried feces + peat : poudrette
Germany 1800: They also trade with manure
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

13. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
Eastern Europe :
Sufficient amount of arable land is available. The lands were involved into cultivation relatively recently /e.g. regulation of the river Tisza / They took not too much care for manure handling and and adding it to the area.
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

14. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
West Europe:
The appreciation of farmyard manure Agriculture that let the land lie fallow : increasing crop growth with the use of farmyard manure Crop rotation: farmyard manure, the use of legumes Thaer: humus theory stated that the food of plant is humus
Albrecht Thaer ( )
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

15. The father of field experimentation
-Pot and field experiments - N-fixation of legumes
CO2 uptake
- Nutrient balance
Jean-Baptiste Boussingault
( )
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

16. He conducted pioneering research in the agricultural chemistry in the first half of the 1800s. His early articles and books opened a new era of agronomic sciences . In 1826 he refuted the theory of humus in his article . In 1828 he published another, more expansive essay on the topic of soil chemistry and plants minerals feeding, which included the essence of the minimum law. Liebig made popular these pioneering discoveries of Sprengel in his book with the title of Agricultural and physiological application of organic chemistry published in 1840
Philipp Carl Sprengel
( )

17. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
The need of returning the nutrients which are taken up by plants  If we neglect it : we made a robber economy.  The disintegration of many of the old empires and the the great migrations can be attributed to this robber economy
Justus von Liebig ( )
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

18. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
The development and importance of fertilization Sprengel and Liebig's theory of mineral refuted the theory of humus by Thaer The importance of phosphorus and potassium + Boussinggault the importance of nitrogen
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

19. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
Relationship between cereal grain yield ,the use of chemicals, mechanization and population density between the two world wars (Prjanisnyikov, 1945)
County Yield Fertilizer* Tractor Population
density
t/ha NPK, kg/ha pcs/1000 ha person/km2
The Netherlands ,
Belgium ,
Gemany ,
The USA ,
* Related to N + P2O5 + K2O kg/ha arable land
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

20. Agroclimatic and integrated agricultural zones of the USA
States of US
The amount of yearly precipitate
Average temperature
Agricultural zones

21. The Russian soil-agrochemical school
  Vasily Dokucsajev ( ): genetic soil classification Dmitri Mendeleev ( ): National field fertilization experiment Konstantin Ketanovic Gedrojc ( ): The first description of soil adsorption complex
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

22. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
The location of essential elements for plats in Mendeleev's periodic system
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

23. Sprengel, Liebig minimum law
Plant growth is determined by the scarcest (or minimum) nutrient available to it.
If one growth factor is deficient, plant growth is limited, even if all other nutrients are adequate
Plant growth can be improved by increasing the supply of deficient nutrients.
Liebig's barrel (right).
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

24. (tettem be egy angol ábrát és, még két ábrát)
A Mitscherlich diminising response curve : with successive applications of fertilizers the yield increments become progressively smaller.
(tettem be egy angol ábrát és, még két ábrát)
Elihardt Alfred Mitscherlich ( )
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

25. Mitscherlich law
yield
Nutrient supply 25 25 25 25

26. Mitscherlich law (diminishing response curve)
yield
Fertilizer doses 26 26 26 26

27. Nutrition requirements of different farming methods
(Kádár, 1979)
Fallow farming without plough 0,1-0,2 t/ha
Fallow farming with plough 0,4-0,6 t/ha
Crop rotation at the turn 1,0-1,5 t/ha
of the century
Hungary in the 1970s t/ha
Intensive farming in the 1970s t/ha
Intensive farming in the 1980s t/ha
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

28. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
Four-year plant NPK losses under different farming conditions kg/ha (Kádár 1979)
Farming methods N P2O5 K2O Sum
Fallow farming (own estimation )
Farming in Előszállás
(Cserháti és Kosutány 1887)
Crop rotation in Rothamstedi in the XIX.
century (Cooke 1965)
Farming in Magyaróvár
(Cserháti és Kosutány 1887)
State farm in
(own estimation)
Modern crop rotation in England
(Cooke 1965)
Leading farms in the 1980s
(own estimation)
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

29. NPK fertilizer production and application
They were called commercial fertilizers initially Chile saltpeter (NaNO3)   exploration of guano sites
The first "real" fertilizer in 1840, superphosphate (Liebig) Mining on potash sites in 1860 in Strassfurt the first lime nitrogen- factory based on Frank Caro ammonium nitrate production based on Haber-Bosh
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

30. 1. History of agriculture and soil fertility
Real rockphosphate and potash stocks Their amount will be enough till years (Depending on the literary source) Rock phosphate stocks: Igneous (hard): 20% Sedimentary (soft): 80% The latter has Cd contamination
1. History of agriculture and soil fertility

31. NPK fertilizer application of the world 1950-2005
(FAO fertilizer almanac)

32. Fertilizer application in Hungary, 1901-2010 (Csathó és Radimszky, 2011)