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GOOD Morning once again to all our readers. A drill sergeant barked out an order to a bunch of recruits, “all you dumbbells get moving”. All but one obeyed, angered by his seeming defiance, the sergeant marched up to him and growled-“well” The young soldier replied there certainly were a lot of them, sir”. It would be great if more of us as Christmas felt that good about ourselves. Its not wrong to affirm our worth. The bible does. We have been created to reflect the moral and personal nature of God, sin has marred that image but because of love, God sent his son to die for our sins. By trusting Jesus as our savior, we are accepted” Just as the father accepts him. Christ has removed the guilt of our sins by paying the penalty on the gross and we know we are fully accepted by him. Let's pause for a moment.

Though sin deformed creations crown, god says, “my child, do not despair” for in my image you were made. And in Christ death you fully share”. Nothing speaks more clearly of Gods love than the cross of Christ.

Our topic: the value of fertilizers in increasing yields of tropical crops has been clearly demonstrated, there are however, important economic factors to consider the local farmers need a supply of small packs of fertilizers, but these are expensive, distribution through local tradesmen is very costly because these people need a high margin particularly if they have to give credit until harvest. The true cost of fertilizers to the farmers in underdeveloped countries is much higher per unit than is developed countries.

There is the cost of shipping, transport plus the high packaging and distribution costs. The problem also is that the small farmer regards the high expenditure on fertilizer as a high risk venture and needs to anticipate a high return before it becomes worthwhile.

Fertilizers feed the soil and not the crop, and plants can only take up that which is not fixed and remains within the space foraged by the roots. With and indication of the amount of nutrients in the soil and the amount taken up by the particular crop it might be thought that the fertilizer application for a crop could be made on the basis of soil analysis. However, while soil analysis indicates the amounts of important elements in the soil, and it may indicate their availability, this is no guide to the amount the particular crop can take up from the soil.

Phosphate is particularly difficult at it is often firmly need by the iron and aluminum compounds in tropical soils. There is insufficient knowledge about the mechanism by which crops take up nutrients or even the extent to which they can draw on different soil depths. Leaf analysis is a good guide to what the crop is getting from the soil and what must be added to balance the nutrients for maximum yield. But, for this purpose the amounts and change as the leaves nature, also as light, climate conditions and seasons vary. But with modern analytical techniques these differences can be reliably detected.

Where important deficiencies occur on tropical soils and cannot be detected by soil analysis, they will be shown up by foliar analysis. Organic fertilizers as I've said many time's before is the way to farm, but because the soil fertility level has been allowed to drop because of the increased use of chemical fertilizers, relying solely on organic fertilizers is at present out of the question. The most reasonable approach is to use whatever organic materials are available and to supplement these with chemical fertilizers as required. Without manufactured fertilizers it would be impossible to maintain the high level of agricultural production that we see today. The six essential plant nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium and sulfur these are known as the major elements.

The term “major” implies that they are required by plants in fairly large amounts, not that they are more important than other nutrients. The quantities absorbed by crops amounts to kilograms or tens of kilograms per hectare compared to the small amounts of grams per hectare of trace elements or minor nutrients. There is a seventh nutrient, sodium, but it is essentials for maximum yield of some crops, such as brassica's and would you believe, its very beneficial to coconuts. It is important to keep a correct balance between the major nutrients. If more than one nutrient is deficient the effect of supplying only one of the nutrients may not be very beneficial and may even be harmful.

By accentuating nutrient imbalance in this way the deficiency of the nutrient or nutrients not supplied is aggravated and crop yield may be depressed. It must be remembered that leaf analysis is very difficult and cannot be used for fertilizer recommendation for arable crops, but it is very useful in fruit growing, using carefully standardized sampling techniques as a guide to the following seasons fertilizer needs. Well friends, I hope you have found it interesting and informative. Next week we will look at the individual nutrients in detail. Until then- take care see you next week.