Fertelizer

Essay by Nicolaus.KochUniversity, Master'sA-, February 2004

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Is the use of fertilizers in farming a good idea ?

Definition: A fertiliser is any substance containing chemical elements needed for plant growth

In recent years fertilisers get more and more important for the population. The population increases from year to year and if we would not use fertilisers more people would die caused of hungry than there die although fertilisers are used.

The farmindustry use fertilisers because the plants grow faster and they can harvest earlier and so more often the year. Another point of using them is that every field ( the soil ) is empty of nutrients after several years and fertilisers give the soil nutrients so you can grow , for example , sorghum every year instead of just every second year.

Plants need Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphur ,Calcium , Magnesium and Iron to grow really good (1).

There are two different kinds of fertilisers, inorganic and organic fertilisers.

Organic fertilisers are fertilisers which refer to a substance produced by a living organism, that are things like carbohydrates, protein and fat (2).

Inorganic fertilisers are made of man.

They contain just the important nutrients like potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen (macronutrients).

The biggest advantage of synthetic fertiliser is that they contain very concentrate macro- and micronutrients so they can be applied in smaller amounts . This saves the transport costs and the farm machinery do not destroy the soil (3). Another advantage is that they are very specific. For example if the soil of your field is rich on nearly every nutrient but it needs nitrogen (contained in amino acids and proteins) you could just add Ammonium Nitrate. In addition the inorganic fertilisers are ready to be put into the soil so they are very easier and cleaner to handle them. Besides this the artificial fertiliser...