Soil Fertility and Productivity difference
A productive soil must be fertile but a fertile soil may not be productive_Explain
Soil Fertility and Productivity
Soil fertility refers to the ability of a soil to supply all the essential nutrients to plants in adequate amounts, available forms and in suitable proportions (balance). It is measured in terms of available forms of essential nutrient elements in the soil at any given time. Soil productivity refers to the ability of a soil to produce crops.
Productivity is a broader term that includes fertility as one of the important factors which contribute towards crop yield. This is not a soil property alone but function of several factors like management practices, irrigation, drainage, plant protection measures, climate etc. This is measured in terms of harvests or crop yield in relation to production factors for a specific kind of soil.
A soil may be fertile but may not be productive. As for example, saline soil may have all the essential elements for plant growth but cannot be fertile because of excess Na-salts, which disturb the balance with other nutrient ions like Ca2+ Mg2+, K+ etc. But a productive soil is, of course, a fertile soil.
Thus soil fertility represents the status of available plant nutrients in soil while soil productivity indicates the resultant effect of various factors influencing crop production, both within and beyond the soil.
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