CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
The essentiality of sulphur (S) for plant growth has been known from the time of Liebig (Tabatabai, 2005a), but compared with other major nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus
- and potassium (K) it has, until recently, received little attention. Plant adsorb sulphate (SO42-) from the soil solution, therefore replenishment from organic and adsorbed sources is important in maintaining sulphate supply to the plant (Sumner, 2000).
Importance of S as a plant nutrient was largely overlooked in soil science research, mainly because the incidental supply of S via deposition and S- containing N and P fertilizer was usually sufficient to meet crop demands. However, since concerns about intensive continuous cropping were adopted among farmers in the decades, sulphur stock has decreased remarkably in some soils in the world. In the 1980s, issues of acid rains were raised in Nigeria (Osu et al., 2013), and sulphur emission from power plants and industries has significantly declined which has led to major causes of S deficiency in some soils.
Over the last 2 decades, farmers deviate from using sulphur rich fertilizers to high analysis fertilizers that contain less amount of sulphur which has masked many latent or incipient sulphur deficiencies in cultivated land in Nigeria (Raji, 2008). The reduced input of S combined with intensified farming and larger S removal in harvests depleted the S stocks in soils and in the 1990s, sulphur deficiency began to surface (Ceccotti, 1996).
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