Effect of integrated nutrient management (INM) with special reference to floricultural crops: A review

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture has become a burning issue due to “energy crisis” and “environmental protection”. One aspect of sustainable agriculture is Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) (Wani et al., 2017). Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) involves conjugative use of inorganic fertilizers, organic manure and biological source of nutrients. The productivity and quality of flowers is greatly influenced by the quantity and source of nutrients. At present, these nutrients are primarily supplied through chemical fertilizers. The indiscriminate use and complete reliance on the use of chemical fertilizers has also led to deterioration of soil health, thereby affecting sustainable flower production. INM holds great promise in exhibiting the growing nutrient demands of intensive farming like Floriculture and maintaining productivity at its optimum with holistic improvement in the quality of resource base, which is very much important in-case of cut and bulbous flowers. Investigations by many researchers have revealed the beneficial influence of INM, on vegetative (plant height, leaf area, leaf number), floral (first bud appearance, floral diameter, weight of flower) and yield attributes (seed weight, seed production) of many flower crops, reduced the cost of fertilizer inputs and increased the B/C ratio, despite maintaining a good soil physico-chemical environment (Wani et al., 2017). Use of different sources of nutrients in an integrated manner helps to produce sustainable yields with good quality flowers and also maintains soil health (Angadi, 2014). Therefore, by reducing the level of chemical fertilizer and optimizing the dose of different organic fertilizer can improve the yield in ornamental crops and improve soil health as well (Jayoti et al., 2014).