Environmental Benefits Of Chemical Fertilizers

Plants are the main primary producers in the world. They not only make food for themselves but for the entire world. It takes about 20 key elements to provide plants with the basic nutrition required by them to make the food they produce for us. A few of the most important and limiting elements is nitrogen phosphorus and potassium. These 3 elements are provided to the plant in the form of fertilizers. With every harvest, the soil loses its nutrition and thus, the quality of the yield is also compromised. Fertilizers restore these nutrients back to the soil for the plants. Fertilizers of different kinds have been in use since a few centuries now. Earlier, farmers used organic fertilizers by mixing manure (plant and animal waste) in the soil

Chemical fertilizers contain all the essential nutrients required by the plants that are already broken down to their simplest forms. These essentials can often get leached by simple irrigation. Nitrogen, particularly, settles to the bottom of the plants( usually near the roots) and seeps down and becomes a part of the ground water. this can contaminate the groundwater for decades and eventually affect both plants and animals. Further, chemical fertilizers are not just made of the key nutrients, but there are other salts and compounds mixed too that are not absorbed by the plants. as a result they are left behind and accumulate around the plants. this can cause clogging and in worst cases this can cause a change in the soils pH level.. also, these toxic wastes can be washed away when the plant is watered and reach the ground water, eventually contaminating it. this groundwater, when consumed by animals and even humans can be fatal and dangerous. a few of the compounds used in the chemical fertilizers are methane and carbon dioxide. The emission of these have greatly contributed to the increasing quantity of green house gases in the environment. this eventually has lead to increased global warming, which is a very important issue today. It is also very important to know how much and how to use the fertilizers for too much of it can be harmful and kill the plants. on the other side too little might be useless. it so essential that a skilled person or a well monitored system is used in the process of fertilization. Long term use of chemical fertilizers can disturb beneficial microbial ecosystems and also cause