What are the ten major harms of excessive chemical fertilizer?

We have relied on grain grown with chemical fertilizers for decades, and they have greatly helped us increase grain yields! But after decades of using chemical fertilizers alone, it has become completely excessive! It has even caused irreversible losses!

The 10 major harms of excessive chemical fertilizer use:

1. Chemical fertilizers contain no organic matter or humus, so when large amounts are used, the lack of organic matter and humus in the soil destroys the soil's aggregate structure, causing soil compaction and declining crop yields.

2. The utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is low. Because nitrogen fertilizer volatilizes and leaches easily, its utilization rate is only 30%-50%, and that of phosphate fertilizer is only 10%-25%, because phosphate radicals are chemically active and most of the phosphorus applied to the soil combines with cations such as Zn2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Fe3+ and Al3+ in the soil to form poorly soluble phosphate fertilizer. The utilization rate of potassium is also only about 50%.

3. The heavy use of chemical fertilizers greatly reduces the quality of vegetables, melons and fruits. Crops need not only nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also many trace elements such as calcium, iron, zinc and selenium, while chemical fertilizers generally have a relatively simple composition. Therefore, long-term use of chemical fertilizers inevitably makes the nutrients in the soil become more uniform, easily causing nutritional imbalance in crops, which in turn blocks internal transformation and synthesis in the crops and inevitably leads to declining crop quality: melons are not sweet and vegetables are not fragrant.

4. It harms human health. Heavy application of chemical fertilizers easily makes the nitrate content in vegetables exceed the standard, and nitrite combines with amine substances to form N-nitroso compounds, which are strongly carcinogenic substances.

5. The heavy use of chemical fertilizers also causes the massive death of beneficial bacteria and earthworms in the soil.

6. The long-term inefficient application of chemical fertilizers often causes excessive accumulation of certain elements in the soil as well as changes in the soil's physical and chemical properties and environmental pollution.

7. Judging from the heavy use of chemical fertilizers in China, the more chemical fertilizers are used, the more soil fertility declines, and the more dependent on chemical fertilizers people become, thus forming a vicious cycle.

8. It brings serious income losses to farmers. According to a sample survey, 80% of farming households in China habitually fertilize based on traditional experience, without considering the characteristics of various fertilizers, and blindly adopt simple fertilization methods such as "flushing with water" and "one-shot bombing." One-third of farming households nationwide over-fertilize their crops, causing farmers' input into cultivation to keep increasing. Although grain output rises, the phenomenon of increasing output without increasing income is becoming more and more serious. In some places, because of long-term excessive use of chemical fertilizers, only costs increase while output does not, resulting in poor quality agricultural products and causing farmers' income to grow slowly or even decline.

9. It affects crop quality. Because large amounts of single-element chemical fertilizers are applied to farmland, their nutrients cannot be effectively absorbed and used by crops. Some chemical substances such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are easily fixed by the soil, causing various salts to accumulate in the soil and resulting in soil nutrient imbalance. In some plots, the content of harmful heavy metals and the amount of harmful pathogens exceed the standard, leading to deterioration of soil properties and blocking the transformation and synthesis of some substances in crops, thus lowering the quality of agricultural products. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers makes fruits and vegetables grow poorly and rot easily, making them unsuitable for storage.

10. It threatens the safety of grain and agricultural products. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers makes crops very prone to lodging, and once lodging occurs, it inevitably leads to reduced grain output and threatens China's food security; excessive use of chemical fertilizers also makes crops prone to pests and diseases. Using too much nitrogen fertilizer weakens crops' resistance to pests and diseases, making them susceptible to infection by pests and diseases, which in turn increases the amount of pesticide used for pest control and directly threatens food safety. Once contaminated agricultural products are eaten, they pose a serious threat to human health, causing poisoning and inducing other illnesses.