Farming and fertilisers

• One half of all the commercial fertilizer ever produced has been applied since 1984.
  
• There is considerable potential for increasing world food supply by increasing fertilizer use in low-production countries.
  
• It has been estimated that that the developing world could at least triple its crop production by raising fertilizer use to the world average.
  
• Agriculture accounts for by far the largest amount of human-generated nitrogen - some 86 per cent.
  
• Over-fertilization is a problem in the developed world where affluence means farmers tend to over fertilize because they are unaware of the specific nutrient content of soils or the needs of the crops.
  
• About half the fertilizer applied to fields never even makes it into plant tissue but ends up evaporating or being washed into local watercourses.
  
• As a result there has been a dramatic increase of nitrogen in water supplies in some parts of the world. This threatens both human health and the environment, with fertilisers leading to the growth of undesirable plants and algae in many water bodies.

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