Problem 3

Background and context

Soil not only provides anchorage, air, water to the plants but acts as a reservoir of essential elements to the plants growing in it also. One of the essential elements is nitrogen which is a constituent of organic compounds such as nucleic acid, amino acids, hormones, proteins, chlorophyll, etc. Even though nitrogen is present in the environment in abundance, its availability from the soil is limited which makes it a critical element. As plants are unable to absorb nitrogen directly from the atmosphere, they have to compete with other plants and microbes in the natural as well as agricultural ecosystem.