Fertilizers are normally referred to as a material, organic or inorganic, synthetic or natural that supplies chemical elements essential for the growth of a plant. Primary nutrients are supplied through chemical fertilizers. The chemical compounds have one or more primary nutrients and are produced owing to chemical reactions. Regardless of the chemical compounds, the most essential ingredient for the growth of the plant is the nutrient content. There are four fertilizer plants in Orissa located at Rourkela. This plant uses the surplus gas as well as the by products from the Rourkela steel plant. The second fertilizer plant is located adjacent to Kalunga and has the capacity of producing 45,000 tones fertilizer annually. The third fertilizer plant is situated at Talcher and produces 495,000 tons of Urea and Nitrogen is produced to 228,000 tones. The fourth plant is located at Baragarh and produces mixed fertilizer.
Chemical fertilizers are produced artificially. The mainly are chemicals possessing nitrogen, potash and phosphate as their vital soil nutrients. Bacteria, fungi, etc are bio-fertilizers that absorb free nitrogen available from the atmosphere and are later used by the crops. There is significant advantage in using chemical fertilizers. The main attraction is it facilitates in good yield. As there is a steep rise in the population, more food is required to feed this population and this is possible only through best yielding varieties. They show a substantial increase in the production of food materials such as sugar, oilseeds, fruits, etc. All these food materials need nutrition through roots from soil. However, this large quantity nutrition can be fortified by using chemical fertilizers. Organic manure can produce good crops, but certainly it has limitations.
Chemical fertilizers are also known as non-living materials that are entirely artificial in origin. The chemical fertilizers examples are ammonium nitrate, superphosphate, potassium sulfate or triple superphosphate. Ammonia is used on the soil directly and is compounded to produce urea that is used as a fertilizer and is high in nutrients. The increase in gas prices also attribute to the high demand in fertilizers. The escalating demand for fertilizers is resulting in producing more ammonia and this eventually shows that this mammoth production is consuming nearly 5% of global gas.
The benefit of growing more crops due to chemical fertilizers and meeting the demands of the growing population is certain. Yet, excess use of chemical fertilizers spoils the properties of soil such as pH, conductivity, osmatic pressure and the capacity of water holding. This also affects the population of micro-organisms and also other parameters.
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