Foliar fertilization for balanced nutrition in rainfed crops

Abstract

For attaining optimal yields, the essential plant nutrients are primarily applied through the soil and foliage, but the most common and effective approach for it is soil application. Contrarily, foliar nutrition is, sometimes, more economical and beneficial. The soil application of fertilizers is usually carried out on the basis of soil tests while foliar application is pre-dominantly done by virtue of
visual symptoms or plant tissue tests. The foliar nutrition could be complementary to fertilization. Among the dryland technologies, foliar spraying of nutrients is also effective in mitigating drought stress during cropping seasons. Foliar fertilization is a climate resilient technology, which not only increases the nutritional quality, but also increases the yield of the crops under rainfed conditions
with the ability to tackle malnutrition and global hunger.