Fertiliser Research Paper

How does Chemistry produce fertilisers to increase crop yield?

Introduction:
The focus question for this article is how does Chemistry produce fertilisers to increase crop yield. In this report, the advantages and limitations of fertiliser with regard to environmental and economic factors will be discussed and evaluated. This report will demonstrate that the negative environmental factors to some degree outweigh the benefits of the use of fertilisers, as the indirect affects are quite significant. However the report will demonstrate that the economic benefits of using fertiliser clearly exceed the negatives.

The use of chemistry:
With the world’s population increasing at a rapid rate, there is an increasing pressure on farmlands to feed

One benefit of the use of fertilisers is that nutrients to be at levels necessary to grow crops can take years to build naturally and a single season of crops can completely use and wipe up the naturally produced nutrients. Fertilisers build nutrient levels and allow for crops to be grown more frequently without the worry of whether there is the current amount of soil nutrients. One of major advantage of the use of fertilisers for the environment is that by being able to continuously achieve high yields on the same land for many years, it has limited the need to clear new land for agricultural needs. In some areas where fertilisers are not used, the clearing of land usually occurs after every two or three crop rotations as the land becomes unproductive leaving the old land exposed to erosion. Lastly if fertilisers were not available worldwide agricultural yield would decrease from 85% to 30% causing worldwide crop

Commercial fertilisers are mostly inexpensive and quite effective. The use of fertilisers on farms are largely beneficial as a higher yield generates a larger income. Although the costs of the fertiliser have to be catered in the farmer’s income, the higher production rates decrease other costs and depending on the type of season usually results in higher profits. Statistics from the 2010 Australian fertiliser industry conference state that if there was no chemical fertilizer available for the agricultural sector then:
- The agricultural sector would bear a direct economic cost from reduced production of $12.7 billion
- The entire economy would be reduced by $40 billion from flow on