This book presents the advancement of coating materials technology especially in agriculture,particularly for fertilizers.Fertilizers are a critical component in meeting rising demands and ensuring global food security.A new generation of fertilizers made by coating granules with biopolymers addresses these issues.Coating in agriculture is an important area in research for a more sustainable future.This book starts with explanations and in-depth reviews about the important terms such as composite material,sodium alginate,bacteria and Bacillus subrilis and then proceeds to the technical parts of the research which are,the properties of microbial composite films that included physical and mechanical properties,chemical properties,as well as the microbial analysis.Also in this book are topics such as fertilizer,coating of fertilizers,plant growth analysis,soil nutrients analysis and mathematical modelling.More importantly are the reviews on research gaps that are related to the novelty of this book,which is,that the fertilizer coating developed on this topic not only regulates the rate of fertilizer release but also contains helpful microbes that act as plant biocontrol agents and provides micro nutrients to plants/crops.Also included in the book are reviews about the mechanisms involved,such as the mechanism to improve conductivity by integration of bacteria and metal ions and mechanism to retain moisture content using glycerol.Many examples and instances from existing research and related research gaps are discussed.It includes applications of composites as fertilizer’s coating,advantages and disadvantages of fertilizer coating from composites,applications of bacteria in composite,applications of bacteria in fertilizer industry as well as the common techniques of coating fertilizers with drying process.
