Manure vs Fertilizers

1. Manure

Manure is an organic substance. Manure is made by decomposing organic matter like animal waste and plant residue.
To prepare manure, farmers dump animal wastes like cow dung and plant wastes like hay and leaves in pits at open places. These wastes are decomposed by micro-organisms and get converted into manure.

Advantages of Manure

1. Manure makes the soil porous and increases the water holding capacity of soil
2. It improves the texture of the soil.
3. Manure increases the number of useful microbes in the soil. Hence it is considered better than fertilizers.

2. Fertilizers

Fertilizers are inorganic salts made in factories.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Fertilizers are rich in a specific plant nutrient such as nitrogen, phosphorous or potassium Fertilizers are more soluble in water and can be quickly absorbed by plants.	Excessive use of chemical fertilisers reduces soil fertility. Fertilisers reduce porous nature of soil which leads to water logging. When fertilisers are washed away by rain water, it leads to water pollution.

Advantages of Manure over fertilizers
When compared, organic manure is more desirable and effective than fertilisers. Because: Manure increases the soil capacity allowing to hold it water in large quantity. The interchange of gases becomes easy since manure has made the soil penetrable. The number of friendly microorganisms are increased. The smoothness of the soil has also been increased due to addition of manure.