ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Soil Sci.
Sec. Soil Biogeochemistry & Nutrient Cycling
Nutriseed pack innovation: a sustainable solution to minimize ammonia volatilization across soil types
Provisionally accepted
- 1Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
- 2Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, Pollachi, India
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The growing reliance on nitrogen-based fertilizers to fulfil global food demand has prompted worries about nitrogen losses, notably ammonia volatilization, which leads to environmental degradation and lowers fertilizer efficiency. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a new Nutriseed Pack approach in minimizing ammonia volatilization in different soil types. Fertilizer and manure pellets were encapsulated and tested on sandy (loamy sand), red (sandy clay loam), and hilly soils (sandy loam) for 48 days. The experiment was conducted with following treatments viz., T1 – Fertilizer Pellet Pack (FPP) with NP(DAP)K; T2 –FPP with NP(SSP)K; T3-FPP (porous) with NP(DAP)K ; T4 - FPP (porous) with NP(SSP)K; T5-Nutri Pellet Pack (NPP) with NP(DAP)K ;T6 - NPP with NP(SSP)K ;T7 -NPP (porous) with NP(DAP)K ;T8 –NPP (porous)with NP(SSP)K ; T9 - Surface application of Urea; T10-Surface application of DAP. Ammonia volatilization was monitored at regular intervals, and the total percent volatilization was calculated. The results showed considerable differences in ammonia losses depending on soil type, Surface-applied urea and DAP were compared with deep-placed Nutripellet Packs (DAP or SSP-based) with and without porous encapsulation. Using a fertilizer pellet pack of NP (DAP)K, the cumulative ammonia volatilization after 48 days was 19.4% in sand, 8.9% in red soil, and 16.1% in hill soil (p<0.05). The ammonia volatilization rate with the NP (SSP) pack was 2.2% in sand, 0.2% in red soil, and 0.3% in hill soil. Surface-applied urea had a very high ammonia volatilization at 77.9 % in sand, 13.8% in red soil, and 30.9% in hill soil, whereas surface-applied DAP had an ammonia volatilization of 8.8 % in sand, 8.0% in red soil, and 15.6% in hill soil. The Nutripellet Pack with deep placement demonstrated a significant reduction in ammonia volatilization when compared to surface-applied fertilizers, with sandy soils seeing the greatest losses. The use of polycoat paper micropores for nutrient release resulted in a significant reduction in ammonia volatilization, particularly when paired with manure pellets in red or hilly soils. These data indicate that the Nutripellet Pack approach can increase nitrogen usage efficiency, minimize environmental impact, and improve fertilizer management practices.
Keywords: ammonia volatilization, fertilizer encapsulation, nitrogen use efficiency, Nutriseed Pack, Sustainable soil management
Received: 25 Oct 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Muthukrishnan, R., Kumar Selvan and Kumar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Raju Muthukrishnan
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