It is a well-established fact that for sustainable crop production, micronutrients are equally important as macronutrients. There are emerging though scattered evidences of crop productivity limitations by micronutrients as the addition of such nutrients is also limited. With the increasing agricultural intensification using high yielding cultivars, synthetic fertilizers; the exploitation rate of micronutrients has overtaken the rate of their replenishment. Leaching losses of such nutrients is a major constraint beside other factors. So, it is important to assess and quantify the leaching losses of such nutrients for sustainable crop production besides planning management strategies. The reduced availability of organic manures and more reliance on synthetic fertilizers is causing increased deficiencies of micronutrients because these fertilizers are highly nutrient specific. The over dependence on synthetic fertilizers has brought many ill effects including soil and environmental pollu

Leaching, macronutrients, micronutrients, management strategies.

The movement of nutrients with percolating water beyond the root zone in soil profile is nutrient leaching and requires a positive water balance. Therefore, humid regions exhibit higher leaching losses. Owing to leaching, the nutrients however, are temporarily lost from the system but by growing deep rooted crops these can be recycled. Agricultural intensification is significantly contributing to leaching deteriorating the soil, water and overall environmental quality. The leaching losses are governed by rate and time of fertilizer application, mobility and concentration in soil. The major nutrients (NPK) have been extensively studied in relation to leaching losses owing to their requirement in crop production and simultaneous contribution in environmental degradation. Nitrate and sulphur are more prone to leaching and phosphorus is immobile however, gets leached with runoff. Calcium and magnesium are leached more rapidly than potassium. Among micronutrients, very scattered information

Thakur, P. and Kumar, P. (2020). Leaching Losses of Micronutrient: A review. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 12(2): 13-21.