FAO guide from 2006 taking a global perspective on nutrient management.

Preface:

An expanding world population and the urgency of eradicating hunger and malnutrition call for determined policies and effective actions to ensure sustainable growth in agricultural productivity and production. Assured access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is essential for individual welfare and for national, social and economic development. Unless extraordinary efforts are made, an unacceptably large portion of the world’s population, particularly in developing countries, could still be chronically undernourished in the coming years, with additional suffering caused by acute periodic shortages of food. For biomass synthesis, which serves as the food resource for humans and animals, nutrient supply to plants is a prerequisite. Therefore, an adequate and appropriate supply of plant nutrients, is a vital component of a crop production system. Agricultural intensification, one of the basic strategies for enhanced food production, is dependent on increased flows of plant nutrients to the crops for securing high yields. Unless supported by adequate nutrient augmentation, the process of agricultural intensification would lead to land degradation and threaten the sustainability of agriculture. In the past two decades, it has been increasingly recognized that plant nutrient needs in many countries can best be provided through an integrated use of diverse plant nutrient resources. An integrated plant nutrition system (IPNS) or integrated nutrient management (INM) enables the adaptation of the plant nutrition and soil fertility management in farming systems to site characteristics, taking advantage of the combined and harmonious use of organic, mineral and biofertilizer nutrient resources to serve the concurrent needs of food production and economic, environmental and social viability. FAO has been engaged actively in the development of INM in the last two decades. Through its field projects, expert consultations and publications, the FAO has focused global attention on the need for large-scale adoption of INM. Propagation of the INM concept and methodology application at the farm level requires that the scientific community, extension workers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders concerned with agricultural development have a clear understanding of the subject. This guide on integrated plant nutrient management, dealing with various aspects of plant nutrition, is an attempt to provide support to the ongoing efforts directed at enhanced and sustainable agricultural production. It seeks to bridge the scientific knowledge gap, and it presents updated information on plant nutrition with emphasis on INM. In helping stakeholders to improve their ability to identify and resolve constraints relating to plant nutrition – be they of a technical, economic, social or policy nature – and to demonstrate on the field practical ways of increasing production through efficient plant nutrition, the guide should assist in achieving the goal of food security.