Integrative organic fertilizer immobilized in marine waste derived CaCO3 nanocarrier system towards quality and quantity enhancement of tomato cultivation

Abstract Tomatoes are rich the lycopene, β-carotene, ascorbic acid and other mineral sources including phosphorus, potassium, zinc, magnesium and iron. Major constraints in tomato cultivation were high cost, poor cultivation due to adverse weather conditions, pest attacks, microbial infections and nutritional deficiency complications. Conventional fertilizers including pesticides, fungicides and growth regulators are effective at higher concentration, which induces specific toxic effects on soil fertility, plant yield and also affects the health status of humans, animals and soil associated microbes. The use of organic fertilizers to meet the soil nutrient demand increases the acidity of soil affecting plant growth which turned the focus of researchers towards nanofertilizer. The present study focuses on the synthesis of marine waste derived CaCO3 nanoparticles formulated with azadirachtin and panchakavya emulsion to develop a CaCO3 nanofertilizer. CaCO3 nanofertilizer were characterized by UV-Visible, FTIR, DLS, EDX, ICP-OES spectra along with FE-SEM, HR-TEM, TGA and BET analysis. CaCO3 nanofertilizer effectively inhibited fusarium wilt causing plant fungal pathogen and also exhibited enhanced growth and yield of tomatoes against pest attack and nutritional deficiency with effect to the foliar treatment. Overall, the fabricated CaCO3 nanofertilizer exhibits the synergistic role of fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide and growth regulator in tomato cultivation.