Korean Journal of Agricultural Science (농업과학연구)

Institute of Agricultural Science, CNU (충남대학교 농업과학연구소)
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Water/nutrient use efficiency and effect of fertigation: a review

  • Woojin Kim (Department of Crop Science, College of Agriculture, Life and Environment Sciences, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Yejin Lee (Division of Soil and Fertilizer, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA) ;
  • Taek-Keun Oh (Department of Bio-environmental Chemistry, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Jwakyung Sung (Department of Crop Science, College of Agriculture, Life and Environment Sciences, Chungbuk National University)
  • Received : 2022.09.13
  • Accepted : 2022.11.17
  • Published : 2022.12.01
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Abstract

Fertigation, which has been introduced in agricultural fields since 1990, has been widely practiced in upland fields as well as in plastic film houses as part of the crop production system. In accordance with demands in the agricultural sector, a huge number of scientific studies on fertigation have been conducted worldwide. Moreover, with a combination of advanced technologies such as big-data, machine learning, etc., fertigation is positioned as an indispensable tool to achieve sustainable crop production and to enhance nutrient and water use efficiency. In this review, we focused on providing valuable information in terms of crop production and nutrient/water use efficiency. A variety of fertigation studies have described that enhancement of crop production did not differ relative to conventional method or slightly increased. In contrast, fertigation significantly improved nutrient/water use efficiency, with a reduction in use ranging from 20 to 50%. Water-soluble organic resources such as livestock manure and agricultural byproducts also have been identified as useful resources like chemical fertilizers. Furthermore, the initial irrigation point was generally recommended in a range of -10 - -40 kPa, although the point differed according to the crop and crop growth stage. From this review, we suggest that fertigation, which is closely integrated with advanced technology, could be a leading technology to attain not only food security but also carbon neutrality via improvement of nutrient/water use efficiency.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

본 연구는 농촌진흥청 농업과학기술개발 연구사업(Project No. PJ015635)의 지원으로 수행되었습니다.

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