Review on integrated nutrient management of tea (Camellia sinensis L.)

Tea is the most popular, inexpensive beverage throughout the world because of its characteristic aroma and flavour produced from the shoots of the commercially cultivated tea plants [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze]. Tea is grown in more than 50 countries, mostly as plantation. The principal categories of tea-green, black and oolong-originate from a single tea plant, Camellia sinensis L. a white-flowered evergreen. The appropriate combination of mineral fertilizers, organic manures, crop residues and compost of N-fixing crops varies according to the system of land use and ecological, social and economic conditions, and decreases in subsidy on fertilizers by the government have become the cause of concern to the government, fertilizer industry and farmers. The world has been shifting to environmentally safe and economically viable alternatives for crop production. Hence, to meet the increasing demand of tea, crop production has to be increased per unit area of land. Manmade fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium have increased the output of agricultural products. Therefore, the strategy for improving agricultural production in developing countries should consider supplementing nitrogen and phosphorous through microbial processes. It can be accomplished through the application of biological fertilizers. With this, the present review focused on integrated nutrient management (INM) of the plant.