Abstract
Crops require adequate nutrition for the production of food, fibre and fuel, but soil conditions often limit the ability of crops to acquire mineral nutrients. To address this, mineral nutrients can be applied as inorganic or organic fertilisers to the soil or as liquid fertilisers to foliage. However, production and use of fertilisers can have negative environmental impacts. The articles in this Special Issue illustrate a number of ways to improve nutrient acquisition from the soil and their delivery through foliar application.
Articles highlighted here include those that discuss ways by which to assess a crop's requirement for additional mineral elements, ways by which minerals can be supplied more effectively to crops both through roots and shoots, and ways by which the crop itself can be enhanced to acquire more mineral elements.
It is apparent from the information contained in this Special Issue that to improve the ability of crops to acquire mineral elements, a number of strategies are available. However, the success of any one intervention is dependent on how these strategies interact with the environment in which they are deployed and the suitability of the management system for the specific intervention.