Nutrient use efficiency in perennial fruit cropsA review

Perennial fruits crops by the virtue of their nutritional qualities have already emerged as a major alternative, cutting short the menacing load on the consumption of traditional monotonous cereal/tuber crop-based diet. A nutrient management-based production system of perennial fruit crops is inherently complex to understand due to large variation in nutrient use efficiency (NUE). The current state of diagnosis of nutrient constraints in the current season-standing crop has minimum efficacy. Therefore, the development of production-linked nutrient norms using crop-specific index plant parts needs a thorough revisit at the orchard level using conventional basin irrigation versus fertigation. The application of hyperspectral analysis as proximal sensing of nutrient stress has started imparting precision to nutrient constraint diagnosis. On the other hand, the biggest constraint in making soil test ratings more purposeful is the non-redressal of spatial variation in soil fertility in the form of soil fertility analogs vis-a-vis fruit crops. The conjoint use of geoinformatics and Nutrient Experts as decision support tool(s) accommodating site-specific nutrient management strategy, newer concept of fertigation such as open-field hydroponics and variable-rate application as possible improvements in NUE collectively using a logical relationship between canopy volume and nutrient requirement, and exploiting further the nutrient-harmone and nutrient-microbe (in the consortium mode) synergies have yielded a definite edge over conventional methods of nutrient management options in fruit crops.