Should Farmers Use Fertilisers?

What is fertilizer?
- Fertilisers contain minerals such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which help plants to grow. Fertilisers increase crop yields but cause the problem of 'eutrophication' when they're washed by rainwater into rivers and lakes. Most chemical fertilisers are made by the reaction of an acid with an alkali.
What makes up fertilizers?
- Fertilisers make crops grow faster and bigger so that crop yields are increased. They're minerals, which must first dissolve in water so that plants can absorb them through their roots.Fertilisers provide plants with the essential chemical elements needed for growth particularly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The proportions of these elements in a fertiliser are often shown as N:P:K = 15:30:15.=
How is it used?
- Fertilisers make crops grow faster and bigger so that crop yields are increased. They are water-soluble minerals. They must be able to dissolve in water so that plants can absorb them through their roots.
- Fertilisers provide plants with the essential chemical elements needed for growth particularly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
What affects does it have on the ecosystem?
- The biggest issue facing the use of chemical fertilizers is groundwater contamination. Nitrogen fertilizers break down into nitrates and travel easily through the soil. Because it is water-soluble and can remain in groundwater for decades, the addition of more nitrogen over the years has an accumulative effect.Groundwater contamination has been linked to gastric cancer, goitre, birth malformations, and hypertension; testicular cancer and stomach cancer.Excessive air- and water-borne nitrogen from fertilizers may cause respiratory ailments, cardiac disease, and several cancers, as well as can "inhibit crop growth, increase allergenic pollen production, and potentially affect the dynamics of several vector-borne diseases, including West Nile virus, malaria, and cholera.

How does it affect humans?
- One of the scariest effects of chemical fertilizers is something called methemoglobinemia. In infants it is alternatively known as Blue Baby Syndrome. The risk most often occurs when infants are given formula reconstituted with nitrate contaminated water. The condition causes a decrease in oxygen in the blood and results in a blue-grey skin colour, causes lethargy and/or irritability and can lead to coma or death.
How can fertilizers 'help' farmers?
- After a few years of constant farming of a piece of land the supply of nutrients in the soil is exhausted. The land becomes less fertile, so plants grow poorly and produce only a small yield. Farmers use fertilisers to put back into the soil the nutrients that have been removed by growing crops.
Can fertilizers affect soil pH?
- Of all the major fertilizer nutrients, nitrogen is the main nutrient affecting soil pH, and soils can become more acidic or more alkaline depending on the type of nitrogen fertilizer used. Phosphoric acid is the most acidifying phosphorus fertilizer. Potassium fertilizers have little or no effect on soil pH.

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Should Farmers Use Fertilisers?

Fertilisers make crops grow faster and bigger so that crop yields are increased. They are water-soluble minerals. They must be able to dissolve in water so that plants can absorb them through their roots.

Fertilisers provide plants with the essential chemical elements needed for growth particularly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

How does it affect humans?

How can fertilizers 'help' farmers?

After a few years of constant farming of a piece of land the supply of nutrients in the soil is exhausted. The land becomes less fertile, so plants grow poorly and produce only a small yield. Farmers use fertilisers to put back into the soil the nutrients that have been removed by growing crops.

Can fertilizers affect soil pH?