Wronged! Fertiliser's court plea!

Preface to reply

Chemical fertilizer originated in Europe and is the product of the industrial revolution.

In 1800, Britain took the lead in recovering ammonium sulfate as fertilizer from industrial coking.

In 1908, Germany invented the modern ammonia synthesis process, which realized the sufficient supply of chemical fertilizer. The application of chemical fertilizer has rapidly improved the living standards of Europe and become the center of the world economy.

As the "grain" of grain, chemical fertilizer is an efficient nutrient brought to us by modern science and technology. for grain, cotton, oil, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products to provide nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, molybdenum, chlorine and other necessary mineral elements, as well as silicon and other beneficial elements.

Over the past 200 years, while the population has continuously doubled, the level of nutrition has increased significantly, and the progress of human civilization has shown exponential growth, which has completely broken through the bottleneck of traditional agriculture relying on natural restoration of soil fertility. It's all thanks to our fertilizer!

In view of the great contribution of chemical fertilizer to human civilization, the inventors of synthetic ammonia technology, Fritz Haber (1918) and Carl Bosch (1931), won the Nobel Prize in chemistry successively.

First: the characteristics and historical achievements of chemical fertilizer

1. Chemical fertilizer comes from nature and has high supply efficiency. The main raw materials of nitrogen fertilizer come from the atmosphere, while other raw materials of chemical fertilizer are mainly minerals. The efficiency of biological nitrogen fixation is about 1 million times higher than that of traditional biological nitrogen fixation. Chemical fertilizer changes farmland from a long period of fertilization-production to a short cycle of continuous production, which greatly improves the output efficiency of farmland.

2. The chemical fertilizer has high nutrient concentration and strong strength, which reduces the labor intensity. Chemical fertilizer liberates farmers from the heavy work of fertilizer collection and composting, and greatly improves the labor production efficiency of farmers.

3. Chemical fertilizer itself is harmless. The nutrient content of chemical fertilizer is high and the impurity is low. The effect of chemical fertilizer is fast, which is beneficial to the timely absorption of crops. The nutrients in chemical fertilizer are mainly inorganic and do not need to be transformed and decomposed by microorganisms. after being applied to the soil, they will be quickly absorbed by crop roots. For example, chemical nitrogen fertilizer will be completely released in 3 to 15 days after it is applied to the soil, which can quickly meet the needs of crops in the vigorous stage of plant growth. Chemical fertilizer can also be applied by irrigation or even foliar spraying, which greatly improves the nutrient absorption efficiency of crops.

4. Other phosphate fertilizers, potash fertilizers and medium and trace elements are extracted from minerals, and the basic ingredients are harmless.

Second, chemical fertilizer is an important guarantee for satiety, good eating and healthy eating.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in the 1960s and 1980s, developing countries increased the per unit yield of food crops by 55% to 57% through fertilization, while chemical fertilizer was of greater significance to China.

1. Half of China's grain output comes from chemical fertilizers. During the more than 2000 years from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, China has been adopting the traditional agricultural production mode, that is, using crop straw, human and animal manure and green manure to improve soil fertility, and the grain yield has been at a low level for a long time. The yield of wheat and rice per mu in China has only increased from 106jin and 80jin to 195jin and 291jin.

In the more than 70 years since the founding of the people's Republic of China, the average per unit yield of wheat in China has reached 70000jin and 1500 jin in high-yield areas. Among them, the application of chemical fertilizer played a key role. Scientists have shown that the difference in per unit yield between crops without chemical fertilizer and those without chemical fertilizer is 55% to 65%.

2. Chemical fertilizer has significantly improved the nutritional level of Chinese people. In recent years, the per capita animal protein supply has increased from 1.4 kg in 1961 to 15.5 kg in 2014. The increase in fruit and vegetable production is mainly due to the increase in output through modern production methods (greenhouse, irrigation, chemical fertilizers, pesticides). The per capita supply of vegetables and fruits in China continues to grow, which not only enriches the diet, but also improves the nutritional level of the residents. Chemical fertilizer greatly enriches the supply of nutrients in the agricultural production system, and provides the basis for the production of more proteins, energy and minerals needed by human beings.

3. Chemical fertilizer improves soil fertility. The quality of cultivated land is the basic guarantee of food security. In traditional agriculture, the nutrient content of cultivated land is mainly determined by soil-forming minerals, and most of the soils have varying degrees of nutrient deficiency. For example, the content of soil available phosphorus in China is relatively low. Through the application of phosphate fertilizer, the content of soil available phosphorus in China has increased to 23mg/kg in the past 30 years.

Third: scientific understanding of several problems in the utilization of chemical fertilizer

It is easy for everyone to understand if we compare chemical fertilizer to food. A series of health problems such as unreasonable diet, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia caused by overnutrition are the problem of food intake, not the food itself. Like diet, the wrong ways such as excessive application of chemical fertilizer, unreasonable collocation of nutrients and extensive application will also have negative effects, but they need scientific analysis, correct understanding and rational treatment.

1. The relationship between chemical fertilizer application and non-point source pollution.

In 2014, the total discharge of ammonia nitrogen from wastewater was 2.385 million tons, including 1.381 million tons from domestic sources, 755000 tons from agricultural sources, 232000 tons from industrial sources and 17000 tons from centralized sources.

It can be seen that the emission of agricultural source is lower than that of living source. Agricultural non-point source pollution also includes the loss of chemical fertilizer, nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients caused by livestock and poultry breeding and aquaculture.

According to research, the contribution of fertilizer nutrient loss to nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from agricultural sources is 11.2% and 25.7% respectively, which is generally low.

In fact, most of the phosphorus and potassium elements that are not absorbed by the crops in the current season will remain in the soil and will be used by the crops in the next season.

2. The relationship between chemical fertilizer application and air pollution.

Generally speaking, if the ammonium nitrogen fertilizers used in agricultural production, such as urea, ammonium bicarbonate and diammonium phosphate, are not absorbed by crops, part of the nitrogen will be discharged into the atmosphere in the form of active nitrogen such as ammonia and nitrogen oxides, causing air pollution.

If the deep application of soil, the application of different stages and the selection of reasonable products are adopted, these losses will be very small.

The study shows that at present, nitrogen fertilizer contributes about 5% to the total emission of nitrogen oxides in China. With the change of fertilization methods, this proportion will gradually decrease.

3. Soil consolidation is not the function of chemical fertilizer.

Farmers intuitively feel that the soil is hardened and polluted, which simply boils down to the role of chemical fertilizer. In fact, soil consolidation is mainly caused by flood irrigation, flooding irrigation, unreasonable farming and so on.

Rational use of chemical fertilizer, especially combined with organic fertilizer, can improve soil structure. It should be emphasized that industrial and mining mining and sewage irrigation bring in much more cadmium than fertilizers.

4. Melons are not fragrant and fruits are not sweet because the collocation of elements is unreasonable, and chemical fertilizer can not be blamed.

"the use of chemical fertilizer melons is not fragrant, the fruit is not sweet," is the result of unreasonable application of chemical fertilizer. The appearance, nutrition, contents and storage properties of agricultural products are directly related to the application of chemical fertilizer. Some fruit growers blindly pursue large fruit and super high yield, invest a lot of nitrogen fertilizer and ignore the cooperation of other elements, resulting in large fruit and a lot of water, while soluble solids and sugar content can not keep up with the flavor.

In fact, crop quality is related to the proportion of nutrient uptake, chemical fertilizer nutrient structure, application methods are reasonable, healthy growth of melons and fruits, the fruit is more fragrant, melons are sweeter.

In short, at present, a comprehensive understanding of the role of chemical fertilizer and a positive and reasonable transformation of fertilization methods in China is a major event to ensure food supply and sustainable development.

We should not only change the wrong concepts such as "more fertilizer and more production" and "water and fertilizer often do not need to ask people", but also should not go to extremes and demonize chemical fertilizers, thus negating chemical fertilizers across the board.

Scientific and rational understanding of chemical fertilizer, correct and rational application of chemical fertilizer, based on modern agricultural development and innovation of chemical fertilizer products, is the right direction.