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Crop Responses to Sulphur Nutrition

  • Chapter
Sulphur in Plants

Abstract

Sulphur deficiency is wide spread in different parts of the world including India. The reasons for its fast increase to the present level of 30% in Indian soils are discussed. Significant advancements in locating S-deficient areas and monitoring crop responses made during last 3 decades have increased our awareness about the role of S as an outstanding factor for the production and quality of crops. It has become increasingly clear that oilseeds require S in high amounts followed by pulses, forages, tuber crops and cereals. Numerous field experiments clearly showed that more than 40 crops have responded to S fertilization with mean yield increase ranging from 14% to 74%. The large body of evidence indicates that S requirements must be an integral part of balanced fertilization for obtaining optimum crop yields of high quality (oil, protein, fatty acids, and reduced nitrate in foliage). S fertilization is a feasible technique to enhance the uptake and fertilizer-use efficiency of N, P, K and Zn, and suppress the plant uptake of undesirable, toxic elements such as Se and Mo because of the sulphur’s synergistic relationships with the former and antagonistic with the latter elements. The key measures needed for optimizing S use for sustainable crop productivity and reducing environmental risks are (i) timely prediction of S deficiency, (ii) timely sowing of crops, (iii) selection of proper method and right time of application of S from suitable sources, (iv) interrelationships of nutrients and balanced fertilization, (v) greater need for S recycling through green manures and crop residues, and (vi) minimizing desorption of SO 2−4 from colloidal surface and leaching by avoiding the excessive use of phosphatic fertilizers. There is an urgent need to delineate unexplored and potentially S-deficient areas; develop reliable, efficient and quick methods for diagnosing S deficiency in different soils and crops; identify the contribution of atmospheric pollution and irrigation waters towards S nutrition of crops; frame effective policies addressing the availability and distribution of S-containing fertilizers especially in S-deficient area; and to undertake systematic studies to malnourishment emerging as a consequence of wide spread S deficiency in animal and human beings.

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  1. Department of Soils, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India

    M. S. Aulakh

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  1. Department of Environmental Botany, Faculty of Science, Hamdard University, New Delhi, India

    Yash P. Abrol  & Altaf Ahmad  & 

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Aulakh, M.S. (2003). Crop Responses to Sulphur Nutrition. In: Abrol, Y.P., Ahmad, A. (eds) Sulphur in Plants. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0289-8_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0289-8_19

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