Editing Fertilizer (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of fertilizer}}
[[File:Total fertilizer production by nutrient, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|Total fertilizer production by type.<ref>{{cite web |title=Total fertilizer production by nutrient |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-fertilizer-production-by-nutrient-tonnes |website=Our World in Data |access-date=7 March 2020}}</ref>]]
[[File:World population supported by synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|World population supported with and without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.<ref>{{cite web |title=World population with and without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-with-and-without-fertilizer |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>]]
[[File:Instalaciones MIRAT S.A. Salamanca.JPG|thumb|Founded in 1812, [[Mirat]], producer of [[manure]]s and fertilizers, is claimed to be the oldest industrial business in [[Salamanca]] (Spain).]]
[[File:Cropland Nitrogen Budget By Component And Region.svg|thumb|Cropland nitrogen budget by component and region, a large proportion comes from fertilizers.]]
Management of [[soil fertility]] has preoccupied farmers since the beginning of agriculture. Middle Eastern, Chinese, Mesoamerican, and Cultures of the Central Andes were all early adopters of agriculture. This is thought to have led to their cultures growing faster in population which allowed an exportation of culture to neighboring hunter-gatherer groups. Fertilizer use along with agriculture allowed some of these early societies a critical advantage over their neighbors, leading them to become dominant cultures in their respective regions (P Bellwood - 2023'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bellwood |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISacEAAAQBAJ&dq=earliest+hominin+plant+fertilizer+use&pg=PR12 |title=First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies |date=2023-01-04 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-70634-2 |language=en}}</ref>''')'''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Min |last2=Zhong |first2=Taiyang |last3=Lyu |first3=Xiao |date=2024-01-22 |title=Spatial Spillover Effects of "New Farmers" on Diffusion of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Evidence from China |journal=Land |language=en |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=119 |doi=10.3390/land13010119 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2024Land...13..119L |issn=2073-445X}}</ref>'''. Egyptians, Romans, Babylonians, and early Germans are all recorded as using minerals or manure to enhance the productivity of their farms.<ref name=Ullmann1/> The scientific research of plant nutrition started well before the work of German chemist [[Justus von Liebig]] although his name is most mentioned as the "father of the fertilizer industry".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://scihi.org/justus-von-liebig-agricultural-revolution/ | title=Justus von Liebig and the Agricultural Revolution &#124; SciHi Blog | date=12 May 2020 | access-date=12 July 2024 | archive-date=12 July 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712172042/http://scihi.org/justus-von-liebig-agricultural-revolution/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Nicolas Théodore de Saussure]] and scientific colleagues at the time were quick to disprove the simplifications of von Liebig. Prominent scientists whom von Liebig drew were [[Carl Ludwig Sprenger]] and [[Hermann Hellriegel]]. In this field, a 'knowledge erosion'<ref>{{Cite book|last=Uekötter|first=Frank|title=Die Wahrheit ist auf dem Feld: Eine Wissensgeschichte der deutschen Landwirtschaft.|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|year=2010|isbn=978-3-5253-1705-1}}</ref> took place, partly driven by an intermingling of economics and research.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Uekötter|first=Frank|date=2014|title=Why Panaceas Work: Recasting Science, Knowledge, and Fertilizer Interests in German Agriculture|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3098/ah.2014.88.1.68|journal=Agricultural History|volume=88|issue=1|pages=68–86|doi=10.3098/ah.2014.88.1.68|jstor=10.3098/ah.2014.88.1.68|issn=0002-1482}}</ref> [[John Bennet Lawes]], an English [[entrepreneur]], began experimenting on the effects of various manures on plants growing in pots in 1837, and a year or two later the experiments were extended to crops in the field. One immediate consequence was that in 1842 he patented a manure formed by treating phosphates with sulfuric acid, and thus was the first to create the artificial manure industry. In the succeeding year, he enlisted the services of [[Joseph Henry Gilbert]]; together they performed crop experiments at the [[Rothamsted Research|Institute of Arable Crops Research]].<ref>{{EB1911|wstitle=Lawes, Sir John Bennet}}</ref>

The [[Birkeland–Eyde process]] was one of the competing industrial processes at the beginning of nitrogen-based fertilizer production.<ref>{{cite book
| title = The development of modern chemistry
| author = Aaron John Ihde
| publisher = Courier Dover Publications
| year = 1984
| isbn = 978-0-486-64235-2
| page = 678
}}</ref> This process was used to fix atmospheric [[nitrogen]] (N<sub>2</sub>) into [[nitric acid]] (HNO<sub>3</sub>), one of several chemical processes called [[nitrogen fixation]]. The resultant nitric acid was then used as a source of [[nitrate]] (NO<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup>). A factory based on the process was built in [[Rjukan]] and [[Notodden]] in Norway and large [[hydroelectric power]] facilities were built.<ref>{{cite book
| title = The world's greatest fix: a history of nitrogen and agriculture
| url = https://archive.org/details/worldsgreatestfi0000leig
| url-access = registration
| author = G. J. Leigh
| publisher = Oxford University Press US
| year = 2004
| isbn = 978-0-19-516582-1
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/worldsgreatestfi0000leig/page/134 134–139]
}}</ref>

The 1910s and 1920s witnessed the rise of the [[Haber process]] and the [[Ostwald process]]. The Haber process produces ammonia (NH<sub>3</sub>) from [[methane]] (CH<sub>4</sub>) ([[natural gas]]) gas and molecular nitrogen (N<sub>2</sub>) from the air. The ammonia from the Haber process is then partially converted into [[nitric acid]] (HNO<sub>3</sub>) in the [[Ostwald process]].<ref>{{cite book
| title = A short history of twentieth-century technology c. 1900-c. 1950
| author1 = Trevor Illtyd Williams
| author2 = Thomas Kingston Derry
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| year = 1982
| isbn = 978-0-19-858159-8
| pages = 134–135
}}</ref> It is estimated that a third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber–Bosch process and that this supports nearly half the world's population.<ref>{{cite book|first=Vaclav|last=Smil|date=2004|title=Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|isbn=9780262693134|page=156}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|first=Claudia|last=Flavell-While|title=Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch – Feed the World|url=https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/|access-date=30 April 2021|website=www.thechemicalengineer.com|archive-date=19 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619021457/https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/|url-status=live}}</ref> After World War II, nitrogen production plants that had ramped up for wartime bomb manufacturing were pivoted towards agricultural uses.<ref name="Philpott">{{Cite web|last=Philpott|first=Tom|title=A Brief History of Our Deadly Addiction to Nitrogen Fertilizer|url=https://www.motherjones.com/food/2013/04/history-nitrogen-fertilizer-ammonium-nitrate/|access-date=2021-03-24|website=Mother Jones|language=en-US}}</ref> The use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers has increased steadily over the last 50 years, rising almost 20-fold to the current rate of 100 million [[tonnes]] of nitrogen per year.<ref name="glass">{{cite journal |last=Glass |first=Anthony |date=September 2003 |title= Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Crop Plants: Physiological Constraints upon Nitrogen Absorption |journal= Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences |volume=22 |issue=5 |doi= 10.1080/713989757 |pages= 453–470}}</ref>

The development of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers has significantly supported global population growth. It has been estimated that almost half the people on the Earth are currently fed due to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Erisman|first1=JW |first2=MA |last2=Sutton |first3=J |last3=Galloway |first4=Z |last4=Klimont |first5=W |last5=Winiwarter |s2cid-access=free |title=How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world|journal=[[Nature Geoscience]]|pages=636–639|date=October 2008|volume=1|doi=10.1038/ngeo325|url=http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf|access-date=22 October 2010|issue=10|bibcode=2008NatGe...1..636E|s2cid=94880859 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723223052/http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf|archive-date=23 July 2010}}</ref> The use of phosphate fertilizers has also increased from 9 million tonnes per year in 1960 to 40 million tonnes per year in 2000.

Agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers in 2021 was 195 million tonnes of nutrients, of which 56% was nitrogen.<ref name=":14">{{Cite book |title=World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023 {{!}} FAO {{!}} Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |url=https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=cc8166en |access-date=2023-12-13 |publisher=FAODocuments | date=2023 |language=en |doi=10.4060/cc8166en| isbn=978-92-5-138262-2 }}</ref> Asia represented 53% of the world's total agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers in 2021, followed by the Americas (29%), Europe (12%), Africa (4%) and Oceania (2%). This ranking of the regions is the same for all nutrients. The main users of inorganic fertilizers are, in descending order, China, India, Brazil, and the United States of America (see Table 15), with China the largest user of each nutrient.<ref name=":14"/>

A maize crop yielding 6–9 tonnes of grain per [[hectare]] ({{cvt|1|ha|acre |1|disp=out}}) requires {{convert|31|–|50|kg}} of [[phosphate]] fertilizer to be applied; soybean crops require about half, 20–25&nbsp;kg per hectare.<ref>{{cite journal |author2=Uhde-Stone & Allan |year=2003 |title= Phosphorus acquisition and use: critical adaptations by plants for securing a non renewable resource |journal= New Phytologist |volume=157 |pages= 423–447 |jstor= 1514050 |author1= Vance, Carroll P |s2cid=53490640 |issue=3 |doi= 10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00695.x|pmid=33873400 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2003NewPh.157..423V }}</ref> [[Yara International]] is the world's largest producer of nitrogen-based fertilizers.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15549105 |title= Mergers in the fertiliser industry |date=18 February 2010 |newspaper= The Economist |access-date= 21 February 2010}}</ref>