Issues of Optimum Nutrient Supply for Sustainable Crop Production in Tropical Developing Countries

E.A. Akinrinde

"Sustainable agricultural development" has become an international "agenda", gaining tremendous recognition in developing countries, though originally coined for use in developed nations. Crop yield, farm profit and environmental sustenance are of major concern as majority of humid and sub-humid tropical soils have "marginal fertility". Yet, plant nutrition is the most singular factor-controlling crop yields. Marginal lands require external inputs to ensure optimum nutrient supply, demanding growers' awareness of plant hunger signs to solve nutritional troubles and sustain productivity on farmlands. This entails multifaceted problems that are of great significance in plant production development in tropical developing countries. Agricultural production needs to be intensified on the basis of progressive social concepts though fertilization (particularly with mineral compounds) is still in its incipient stage in many countries. Indeed, the problem of optimizing nutrient supply to crops remains unsolved even in some countries that boast of intensive crop production and high-level agricultural research. This report considered the plant symptoms that are of significance to the identification of nutritional ailments and their causes. Solutions for reversing them and enhance crop productivity and sustainability were proffered. Guaranteeing optimum nutrition to tropical crops demands advanced level of knowledge about soil-plant systems and on the associated soil and climatic characteristics. Necessary information must be made available to growers apart from promoting discussions of this important and complex problem with (and among) scientists in the region.