14 hazards of excessive chemical fertilizers

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China issued the "Action Plan for the Reduction of Chemical Fertilizers by 2025" and the "Action Plan for the Reduction of Chemical Pesticides by 2025".

The "Action Plan for Fertilizer Reduction by 2025" proposes to establish and improve a modern scientific fertilization technology system oriented to "high yield, high quality, economy, and environmental protection", improve the fertilizer efficiency monitoring and evaluation system, and explore the establishment of a complementary and complementary system of public welfare and marketization. "One major and multiple" scientific fertilization promotion service system, accelerate the establishment of complete laws and policies, system standards and working mechanisms for fertilizer reduction, and strive to realize "one reduction and three improvements".

Further reduce the total amount of agricultural chemical fertilizer application. By 2025, the nutrient structure of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and medium and trace elements will be more reasonable, and the amount of agricultural chemical fertilizers used nationwide will be stable and moderate.

Further increase the amount of organic fertilizer resources returned to the field. Vigorously promote the pilot project of green planting and breeding cycle agriculture, and the organic fertilizer resources will be effectively and rationally returned to the field for utilization. By 2025, the proportion of the area of organic fertilizer application will increase by more than 5 percentage points.

Further increase the coverage rate of soil testing formula fertilization. Continue to promote basic work such as farmer surveys, field experiments, and formulation of formulas. By 2025, the coverage rate of soil testing and formula fertilization technology for major crops in the country will be stable at more than 90%.

Further improve the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers. Promote new technologies, new products, and new equipment for fertilization, and comprehensively improve the level of scientific fertilization. By 2025, the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers for the three major food crops in the country will reach 43%.

14 hazards of excessive chemical fertilizers

1. Chemical fertilizers do not contain organic matter and humus, so a large amount of chemical fertilizers are used. Due to the lack of organic matter and humus, the soil aggregate structure is destroyed, resulting in soil compaction, and the yield and quality of agricultural plants decline.
2. The utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is low. The utilization rate of nitrogen fertilizer is only 30%-50% because it is volatile and lost, and the utilization rate of phosphorus fertilizer is only 10%-25%. Zn2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Fe3+, Al3+ and other cations combine to form insoluble phosphate fertilizer. The utilization rate of potassium is only about 50%.
3. Extensive use of chemical fertilizers greatly reduces the quality of vegetables and fruits. Since crops not only need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also many trace elements such as calcium, iron, zinc and selenium, and chemical fertilizers generally have relatively single ingredients, long-term use of chemical fertilizers will inevitably lead to single nutrients in the soil, which will easily cause nutritional imbalance in crops, thus As a result, internal transformation and synthesis of crops are hindered, which will inevitably lead to a decline in crop quality, melons are not sweet, and vegetables are not fragrant.
4. Harm to human health. Extensive application of chemical fertilizers can easily cause the nitrate content in vegetables to exceed the standard, and the combination of nitrite and amines to form N-nitrite-based compounds is a strong carcinogen.
5. Extensive use of chemical fertilizers will also cause a large number of deaths of beneficial bacteria and earthworms in the soil.
6. The long-term low-efficiency application of chemical fertilizers often causes excessive accumulation of certain elements in the soil, changes in soil physical and chemical properties, and environmental pollution.
7. Judging from the massive use of chemical fertilizers in China, the more chemical fertilizers are used, the lower the soil fertility, and the more dependent on chemical fertilizers, thus forming a vicious circle.
8. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers has caused serious income loss to farmers. According to a sample survey, 80% of farmers in my country are used to fertilizing according to traditional experience, without considering the characteristics of various fertilizers, and blindly adopt simple fertilization methods such as "washing fertilizer with water" and "one shot". One-third of the farmers in the country apply excessive fertilizer to their crops, which leads to the continuous increase of farmers' land investment. Although the grain output has increased, the phenomenon of increasing production but not increasing income has become more and more serious. In some places, due to the long-term excessive use of chemical fertilizers, only the cost is increased but the output is not increased, resulting in poor quality of agricultural products, slowing down the increase in farmers' income or even reducing their income.
9. Affect crop quality. Due to the extensive use of single-element fertilizers in farmland, their nutrients cannot be effectively absorbed and utilized by crops. Some chemical substances such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are easily consolidated by the soil, causing various salts to accumulate in the soil, causing soil nutrient imbalance. The content of harmful heavy metals and harmful bacteria in some plots exceeds the standard, resulting in deterioration of soil properties. Substance transformation and synthesis are hindered, which reduces the quality of agricultural products. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers will result in poor growth properties of fruits and vegetables, and they are easy to rot and are not suitable for storage.
10. The security of food and agricultural products is threatened. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers can easily lead to lodging of crops, and once lodging occurs, it will inevitably lead to a reduction in grain production and threaten China's food security; excessive use of chemical fertilizers is also prone to pests and diseases. Excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers will weaken the ability of crops to resist pests and diseases, making them vulnerable to pests and diseases, which in turn will increase the amount of pesticides used to prevent pests and directly threaten food safety. Once contaminated agricultural products are eaten, they will pose a serious threat to the human body, causing poisoning and other diseases.
11. Increase soil heavy metals and toxic elements. The heavy metals that cause pollution mainly include Zn, Cu, Co and Cr. Studies have shown that whether it is acidic soil, slightly acidic soil or calcareous soil, long-term application of chemical fertilizers will also cause the accumulation of heavy metal elements in the soil. Such as long-term application of ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, and compound fertilizer, the As content in the soil can reach 50-60 mg/kg.
12. Accelerate soil acidification. Long-term application of chemical fertilizers accelerates soil acidification. On the one hand, it is related to the process of nitrification of nitrogen fertilizer in the soil to produce nitrate. First, ammonium is converted to nitrite, and then nitrite is converted to nitrate, forming H+, which leads to soil acidification. On the other hand, some physiologically acidic fertilizers such as calcium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, and ammonium chloride will increase H+ in the soil after plants absorb the nutrient ions in the fertilizer. The acidification of many cultivated soils is related to the long-term application of physiological fertilizers. At the same time, long-term application of KCl can gradually acidify the neutral soil with little buffer due to the influence of physiological acidity caused by crop selective absorption.
13. Lead to soil nutrient imbalance. From the perspective of soil nutrient balance and sustainable utilization, it can be clearly seen that the high concentration of chemical fertilizers has brought both economic benefits and new problems, that is, the use of large amounts of high-concentration fertilizers has increased crop yields, At the same time, it also increased the depletion of trace elements in the soil.
14. Destroy the soil structure. The long-term use of nitrogen fertilizers, especially ammonium fertilizers, releases hydrogen ions during the nitrification process after ammonium ions enter the soil, which gradually acidifies the soil. Ammonium ions can replace the calcium ions on the soil colloidal particles, causing the soil particles to disperse, thereby destroying the soil aggregate structure, causing serious soil compaction, and eventually losing the value of agricultural cultivation.

It is urgent to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer and increase efficiency

Since ancient times, agriculture has been the most basic industry. If human society wants to develop sustainably, it must first meet the food demand. Just have to eat your stomach first! This is indeed a great contribution of chemical agriculture! In the past few decades since the birth of chemical fertilizers, my country's agriculture has completely relied on chemical agriculture. While chemical agriculture has increased our food production, it has robbed the land of nutrients and destroyed soil health! Compared with the soil, chemical fertilizers bring us much more than they take away! And this problem has been ignored by us all the time!

The current development of organic fertilizer is the need of the situation and the necessity of development. Organic fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizer is the direction. If organic fertilizers are used to replace part of chemical fertilizers, or chemical fertilizers are reduced, organic fertilizers are added, and organic and inorganic fertilizers are used in combination. It is a very important way to fertilize soil fertility, protect the agricultural environment, or steadily improve the yield and quality of agricultural products.

Agriculture should be based on green development.