Water Soluble Fertilizers Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2026 with Key Players Agrium, ICL, Iowa F

The vast majority of potash is used in fertilizers to aid in plant growth. A small percentage is used in the manufacturing and production of detergents, ceramics, pharmaceuticals and water conditioners, and as an alternative to de-icing salt.

Water Soluble Fertilizers Market Set for Rapid Growth and Trend by 2026 | Agrium, ICL, Iowa Fertiliz

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The American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) defines controlled-release fertilizers as plant-nutrient containing fertilizers that delay its availability for plant uptake and use after application. With the increasing population, governments of various nations are imposing security on food. This is likely to help promote the delayed-release fertilizers market growth. Besides this, companies are trying to introduce cost-efficient and encapsulated CRF fertilizers and this will further attract high slow acting fertilizers market revenue in the forecast duration.

However, the lack of proper laws for protecting controlled-release fertilizers may affect the overall CRF market size in the forecast period. Nevertheless, government efforts and the launch of various educational programs for farmers are likely to help create lucrative controlled-release fertilizer market growth opportunities in the near future.

From a geographical perspective, North America is dominating the market on account of the presence of large number of players. However, Asia Pacific is likely to register the fastest delayed-release fertilizer market growth rate with a CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period. This is attributed to the rapid increase in the population of countries especially China and India. This is further propelling the rise in demand for food all over the region. Japan and China are the two major market leaders in Asia Pacific with both high production and consumption. Growth in China is owing to the rise in research and development of innovative agricultural products, coupled with the presence of market players namely Hangfeng Evergreen, Kingenta International, and others in the nation. Moreover, conducive policies concerning smart fertilizers in Japan and China are further expected to help this region continue dominating the market in the years to follow.

Appropriate irrigation management is essential for maximizing crop yield, fertilizer and water use efficiency for vegetable production. Drip irrigation combined with optimized fertilization can accurately control the timing and amount of irrigation and reduce fertilizer losses (Tanaskovik et al., 2011; Fan et al., 2014). The use of composite liquid fertilizers enables, in most cases, the matching of temporal application to current demands of most mineral nutrients. Nevertheless, reliance on fertigation requires special consideration of the irrigation water quality in terms of electrical conductivity (EC) as a measure of salinity, water pH, and the presence of essential mineral nutrients. In recent years, desalinated sea water has been a primary source for irrigation water in many regions in Israel. This water lacks mineral nutrients, particularly calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S) that are essential for plant growth and development.

Solubility is an important factor for fertilizers. Solubility varies considerably between sources affecting nutrient release rates and therefore their availability to plants, in addition to the potential for losses due to leaching, runoff and volatilization. Solubility also determines the potential for use in liquid fertilizer production. Barbarick (1991) stated that polyhalite was less soluble in water than conventional fertilizer sources and could provide a gradual release of nutrients. This prolonged availability of nutrients can guarantee nutrition at different stages of crop development, while also significantly reducing leaching losses.

Experiments evaluating the use of polyhalite have shown significant advantages for many crops (PVFCCo, 2016a, 2016b; Tam et al., 2016; Melgar et al., 2018; Tien et al., 2018; Eryuce et al., 2019). Polyhalite solubility and the potential availability of its various constituent minerals have been studied in both laboratory tests and field experiments (Yermiyahu et al., 2019). In the laboratory test, the K and Mg salts were completely dissolved, while the Ca salts showed slower solubility. In the field experiment, carried out on a sandy soil in the Negev desert, Israel, under repeated wetting cycles that simulated successive rainfall events, all polyhalite constituents were dissolved between 75-100% after 300 mm of accumulated water application, in the order of K > Mg > S > Ca (Fig. 3). Significant differences in solubility occurred with application of increasing amounts of water, up to 800 mm. While K and Mg presented negligible or null residues, the dissolution of S was more gradual, and the Ca residues remained constant. Dissolving polyhalite in water takes longer and requires larger volumes of water compared to other soluble fertilizers. Any residual granules present on the surface after the evaluations did not show significant amounts of the nutrients. This indicates the safety of considering the guaranteed levels of the product, whilst reducing possible risks of fertilizer overuse and allowing the application of polyhalite as a fertilizer with slower release than most of soluble sources.

In contrast, the osmotic component of salt stress has similar effects on all plant species. As the ions, or soluble compound concentration in the liquid phase of the soil increases, the availability of water to the plant roots decreases. This phenomenon is expressed as the osmotic potential of the soil extract, whose strength also depends on the chemical properties of the soluble compounds. Consequently, fertilizers can differ significantly in their effect on soil osmotic potential. Thus, to evaluate the osmotic effect of fertilizers, the parameter known as salt index (SI) was established in the 1940s (Rader et al., 1943). The salt index expresses the proportion of the increase in the osmotic pressure of the saline solution produced by a given fertilizer compared to the osmotic pressure of the same weight of sodium nitrate (NaNO3). Sodium nitrate was selected as the standard to measure the salt content against because it is completely soluble in water (NaNO3 SI is equal to 100). For example, the SI value for KCl considered by the authors was 116, that is the salinity of this fertilizer would be 16% higher than that of NaNO3 when the products were applied at the same rate. 2ff7e9595c