DEGRADATION OF BIOPOLYMER BASED ON SLOW RELEASE FERTILIZER IN WET SOIL

Slow Released Fertilizer (SRF) coating is used in agriculture to gradually control the amount of nutrients released from fertilizers. Modified biopolymer is a newly developed technology that widely used as coating material for fertilizers. Studies on degradation impact of the slow release have found to be least studied in literature. To understand this process, the current experiment is designed to study the physical and chemical characterization of biopolymer material degradation and resultant urea release in wet (40% WHC) sterilized and unsterilized soil under different incubation period. Determination of microbial C and N biomass changes in relation to material degradation at different times will also be conducted. Soil is incubated with CRF and samples are collected over 0, 1, 3, 5, 7 weeks. The film samples are analyzed for physical changes using FTIR and FESEM. Spectrophotometer is used to quantify the biopolymer degradation and also urea release in soil to achieve the study objectives. The study will comprehend the suitability of biopolymer based CRF for paddy field soil and under different conditions over a period of times. From the study, it is observed that degradation had occurred and cause the morphology of the coating changed. Besides that, the result also shows the relation between the enzyme activities that is proportional to urea release. This proves that there are correlation between activity of enzyme, degradation of biopolymer and release of urea.