Organic Fertilizers

With the mounting concern for health and environment, consumers are now getting more conscious as to the quality of the food they buy from the grocery store.  As chemicals from fertilizers become a global concern for their carcinogenic effects, more and more people are buying organic fruits, vegetables and meat.  These products are grown using organic fertilizers and undergo very  little or zero chemical processing.  But what is organic fertilizer in the first place?

Organic fertilizer is defined as naturally occurring fertilizers or naturally occurring mineral deposits like saltpeter.   Examples of organic fertilizer include manure, slurry, worm castings, peat, seaweed, humic, guano and humic.

Organic fertilizer can also be processed.  Examples of processed organic fertilizers are compost, blood meal, bone meal, humic acid, amino acid, brassin and seaweed extracts.   Even though these types of organic fertilizers undergo a certain process, what sets them apart and considers them as organic is the fact that there almost no chemical intervention in their processing or they undergo very little processing.

Some of the advantages associated with organic fertilizer is preservation of the fertility of the soil.  Farmers who use organic fertilizer reduce the risk of desertification because organic fertilizers preserve the top soil.  They also mobilize soil nutrients increasing soil fertility and release nutrients at a slower and more consistent manner reducing the need to apply fertilizer often, which results in less waste.   Organic fertilizer also preserves soil moisture reducing moisture stress.

Organic fertilizers help farmers avoid the usual problems caused by applying artificial fertilizer.  Some of these problems include the necessity to reapply fertilizers often.  Artificial fertilizers are also notorious for excessive nitrogen and phosphorous run-off which contribute to the pollution of bodies of water resulting in the killing of fishes.  Organic fertilizers are also cheaper compared to artificial ones especially if they are obtained locally.

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