subject: Mitigating The Negative Environmental Impact Associated With Fertilizers [print this page] It is important to clarify, right from the outset, that what we refer to as fertilizers' in this context are the chemical formulations that are meant to be fed' to soils, with the intention of making the soils more fertile. A soil is termed as being fertile when it can easily provide the plants that get planted on it with the nutrients that they need for their well-being. Plants, like other living things, need a variety of nutrients to survive and thrive.
If we may recall, in the case of animals, the most crucially needed nutrients are proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins; with various other minerals being required in smaller quantities, but with their supply also being essential for the wellbeing of the animals. In the case of plants, the situation is the same, with the only difference being in terms of the specific requirements: where the main nutrients required are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, and a host of other minerals in smaller quantities. Plants make their own food from the energy they tap from the sun, hence the difference in nutritional requirements between them and animals.
Now in an ideal situation, every soil should provide the plants that grow on it with all nutrients that they need. These nutrients would be originating from the chemical composition of the soil (the soil being the result of long-term rock fragmentation), as well as originating from dead and decayed matter on the soils. Unfortunately, it is not always the case that a given soil would provide the plants that are planted on it with all the nutrients they need. Sometimes, this deficiency is caused by the soils inherent chemical composition. Sometimes, it is caused by the situation where the nutrients get eventually depleted by generation after generation of plants sown on the soil without nutritional replenishment.
So it is toward the replenishment of the soil with the various nutrients that various fertilizers are applied.
In most cases, the application of fertilizers turns out to be a successful strategy for soil nutrient replenishment. With the application of the right type of fertilizer in the right way, we tend to see a soil that could hitherto barely support a plant being in a position to not only do so, but actually do so in a superior manner; to leave us with thriving plants.
Unfortunately, the application of fertilizers has been associated with a number of negative environmental impacts. Indeed, fertilizer usage is seen as contributing quite a great deal to the global environmental crisis we currently find ourselves facing. But is also clear that we are not about to give up on fertilizer usage, it being an important element of modern agriculture. So the question we end up with is the one on how we can mitigate the negative environmental impact associated with fertilizers.
As it turns out, one way to mitigate the negative environmental impact associated with fertilizers is to use them sparingly. Ideally, before deciding to use a fertilizer, you should subject the soil to a nutritional analysis, work out what nutrients (if any) it is really deficient in, and then ensure that you only use fertilizers that bridge that deficiency and no more. It is established that a lot of fertilizer usage today is superfluous and it is this that is to blame for the negative environmental impact.
Applying the fertilizers in the proper way will keep them from leaching into the environment.
Using the fertilizers at the right times is another way to mitigate the negative environmental impacts associated with them. A wrong time to apply certain types of fertilizers could be when it is raining heavily, when certain types of fertilizers could be washed to end up in water bodies where they wreck havoc.
Using organic fertilizers wherever possible is another strategy through which the negative impact associated with the fertilizers could be mitigated. These organic fertilizers and manures provide the same nutrients as the (purely synthetic) chemically formulated fertilizers, but at a much lowered negative environmental premium.
Mitigating The Negative Environmental Impact Associated With Fertilizers
