What are the top ten harms of excessive fertilizer use?

We have depended on chemical fertilizers for grain crops for decades, and they have greatly helped us increase food production! But decades of using chemical fertilizers alone has become completely excessive! It has even caused irreversible damage!

The top 10 harms of excessive 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 reduced crop yields.

2. The utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is low. Because nitrogen fertilizer is volatile and easily lost, its utilization rate is only 30%-50%, and the utilization rate of phosphate fertilizer is only 10%-25%, because phosphate radicals are chemically active, and after being applied to the soil most of the phosphorus 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 and fruits. Because 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, long-term use of chemical fertilizers inevitably causes the nutrients contained in the soil to become simplified, easily leading to nutritional imbalance in crops, which in turn blocks internal transformation and synthesis in the crops, inevitably leading to a decline in crop quality: melons are not sweet, and vegetables are not fragrant.

4. Harm to human health. Applying large amounts of chemical fertilizers easily causes nitrate levels in vegetables to exceed standards, 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 mass 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, 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 it becomes, thus forming a vicious cycle.

8. It brings serious income losses to farmers. According to sample surveys, 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 application." One-third of farming households nationwide over-fertilize crops, causing farmers' input costs to keep rising. Although grain output increases, the phenomenon of increased output without increased income is becoming more and more serious. In some places, due to long-term excessive use of chemical fertilizers, costs increase without output increasing, 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, resulting in soil nutrient imbalance. In some plots, the content of harmful heavy metals and the amount of harmful bacteria exceed standards, leading to deterioration of soil properties, blocking the transformation and synthesis of some substances within crops, and reducing 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 very easily causes crops to lodge, 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 excessive 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 pesticides used to prevent pests and diseases, directly threatening food safety. Once contaminated agricultural products are eaten, they pose a serious threat to human health, causing poisoning and inducing other illnesses.