This book will address the importance of the soil management concept vis-à-vis chemical
fertilizer use on soil. Historically soil testing has been used to quantify bio availability
of plant nutrients to field grown crops. However contemporary soil tests are based on
philosophies and procedures developed several decades ago without significant changes in their
general approach. For a soil test to be accurate one needs to clearly understand the
physico-chemico-physiologic processes at the soil-plant root interface and an understanding
of soils and plant root systems as polycationic systems is essential. It is this knowledge that
leads to sound prescriptive soil management practices inasmuch as nutrient bioavailability
vis-à-vis chemical fertilizers application is concerned because of all the factors that
govern sustainability of crop production the nutrient factor is the most important yet it is
also the least resilient to effective management. The author's research spanning over three
decades in Europe Africa and Asia establishes the fact that precise quantification of the
nutrient's buffer power holds the key to a clear understanding of the plant bioavailability of
some of the most important plant nutrients in crop production such as phosphorus potassium
and zinc. The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept attempts to clearly explain the bio availability of
the three plant nutrients named above on the basis of the diffusion model as that is the
process by which these three important principal plant nutrients are absorbed from the soil by
the plant root. Possibly other plant nutrients which are taken up by the plant roots by the
same diffusive model would also conform to the principles of the concept. A thorough knowledge
of thermodynamic principles on the part of the researcher is an absolute pre requisite for
this. The book chronicles more than three decades of the professional journey of the author in
Europe Africa and Asia understanding soil for human sustenance and developing the
revolutionary soil management concept now globally known as The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept
which has brought the author a string of international recognitions including the nomination
for the Alternative Nobel Prize (The Right Livelihood Award) of Sweden and succour to millions
to poor and marginal farmers across Africa Asia and Latin America.
