Advantages and Disadvantages of Organic Fertilizers

Advantages and Disadvantages of Organic Fertilizers

Very rarely and perhaps very few farmers are aware that they need organic matter for survival. Not a few farmers think that if you use a lot of chemical fertilizers, you will get a lot of results. At this time there are many actors (farmers) who use chemicals for fertilization, and have a tendency to apply more and more chemical fertilizers, because the expected yield is high but from time to time it increases even decreases.

Based on data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, showing data that is very dangerous for our agricultural land, many lands in Indonesia have levels of organic matter that are less than 1{d50e0571c5be256f2244e3785f87da3cc3547cbc1b0d530766df4d76d0d7aa90}. Meanwhile, from various experiences and researches, experts state that high levels of organic matter in the soil will greatly help maximize the results obtained from business actors. Organic fertilizers are fertilizers that are composed of living things, such as weathering the remains of plants, animals, and humans. Organic fertilizers can be solid or liquid which can be used to improve physical, chemical, and biological.

A little history of Indonesia regarding the need for fertilizers

Prior to Indonesia’s independence, farmers were very happy to use organic fertilizers in agricultural cultivation compared to inorganic fertilizers (chemical).

However, the facts turned upside down when in the 1960s farmers began to use a lot of chemicals in agricultural cultivation, which is more worrying about the role of organic fertilizers, so there is no role in agricultural cultivation, so many farmers ignore it.

The production of chemical fertilizers is growing rapidly from time to time, so that if it is calculated quickly, inorganic (chemical) fertilizers become cheaper than organic fertilizers.

And supported by the discovery of many superior varieties which from various studies are more suitable and good when using inorganic (chemical) fertilizers. This results in a lot of degraded agricultural land being found, resulting in decreased levels of organic matter from agricultural land.

Solutions to Overcome the Decrease of Organic Materials in Agricultural Land

The fact is stated by many experts that agricultural land actually needs organic fertilizers as a source of fertilizers and nutrients, not from artificial fertilizers or chemical fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are also very useful as soil ameliorants or improve the quality of soil as agricultural land.

Excess of Organic Fertilizer

The benefits that will be felt by farmers are the increased productivity of agricultural land. Because the increasing levels of organic matter and nutrient content in the soil, it will automatically improve the properties, chemistry and biology of the soil or agricultural land.

  • Another benefit that is felt is that it is easier to cultivate the land because the soil is getting better
  • The price of organic fertilizers is cheaper and very easy to obtain from nature
  • Organic fertilizers contain micro elements that are more complete than chemical fertilizers
  • Organic fertilizers will provide life to soil microorganisms
  • Another advantage of organic fertilizers is that it has the ability to mobilize or bridge the nutrients in the soil so that it will form ionic particles that are easily absorbed by plants.
  • Has the ability to release soil nutrients very slowly and continuously, so it will help prevent excess supply of nutrients that make plants poisoning
  • Able to keep moisture from the soil, so that it will reduce the pressure or stress of the soil structure in plants
  • Able to help prevent topsoil erosion
  • Able to maintain and maintain soil fertility levels
  • Provides benefits for human health, because it contains many nutrients and is more complete and more
  • Application of organic fertilizers to sandy soils results in increased soil binding capacity.
  • Some experts say that applying organic fertilizers will increase the population of pathogenic natural enemies so that it will suppress the saprophytic activity of the pathogen.

Lack of Organic Fertilizer

Organic fertilizers, especially manure, often contain weed seeds. Grains that are eaten by livestock will not be digested so that they can grow and disturb the plants.

Organic fertilizers are often a factor in carrying pests and diseases because they contain larvae or insect eggs so that plants can be attacked.The nutrient content in organic fertilizers is difficult to predict The response of plants to organic fertilizers is slower, because organic fertilizers are slow release.

Biotechnology applications, such as microbial fertilizers, are still rarely used. So that the addition of the number of microorganisms in the soil is less than optimal. If the organic fertilizer (compost) given is still raw, the organic matter will be attacked by microbes so that plant nutrients are reduced because they are “eaten” by microbes from the raw compost.