Sustainable Management of Phosphorus in Agriculture for Environmental Conservation

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. Although the P-concentration in soil is 1000 folds higher than in plants, it is rarely available for plant uptake due to low diffusion and high fixation rate in soil. Hence, plants experience P-deficiency in the absence of P-fertilization, which may cause approximately a 30–40% decrease in crop yield. This highlights the importance of using a large amount of phosphate fertilizers to meet crop demands. As P-fertilizer is derived from a nonrenewable and finite source of rock phosphate, this resource is decreasing over time. In addition, farmers are applying P-fertilizers randomly without considering the soil stock, which leads to the loss of P-resources. The low P-use-efficiency (PUE) of plants in…