Greta Rocchi
10.2
One World Essay: Feeding the World
This essay explain how science make ammonia nitrogen fertilizers, discus
about how they are used in order to solve the problem of food shortage and
evaluate their effectiveness and limitation in order to solve the problem of food
shortage.
To grow plants need nitrogen. Nitrogen is a macronutrient for plants and
with Potassium and Phosphorus it is the basic requirement for the growth of
plant tissues. It is also one of the essential components of chlorophyll, the
composite for plants nutrition produced during the process of photosynthesis.
Nitrogen is founded in the atmosphere, presented as a molecule made up by two
atoms bonded together. In order for plants to use the nitrogen, the two atoms
must be separated. There are many ways for this to happen, some are natural
and some happen thanks to human actions such as through nitrogen fertilizers,
which by growing plants and increasing the percentage of the food cultivated,
break down the cycle of food shortage. Many are the type of nitrogen fertilizers;
one of this is ammonia (NH4). Fertilizers are materials that are added to the soil
to stock plants nutrients essential to the growth of plants. It has been found that
about 40 to 60% of the crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use,
especially of ammonia nitrogen fertilizers. This means that around half of people
on the Earth are currently fed with fertilized products. ("Agronomy Journal Abstract.")
Ammonia nitrogen fertilized is the fixing of nitrogen through the
combination of nitrogen and hydrogen (equation: N2 + 3 H2 ⇌ 2 NH3.) The
process to create ammonia fertilized is called “the Haber-Bosch Process” and it
was created by German scientists at the beginning of the 20th century.
Greta Rocchi
10.2
As it is shown if the picture above ("1928: Proximity to the Market." ) the
first thing that happens in the process is the production of nitrogen (N2) from
air, and of hydrogen (H2) from a hydrogen source such as water or derived form
natural gas like methane. Afterword these two elements are bonded with
ammonia (NH3) at a temperature between 300 and 900 °C. This is called
nitrogen fixation. The process takes place in a compression tank where pressure,
temperature and an iron catalyzer cause the nitrogen and hydrogen to combine
with the ammonia. The ammonia is than changed into nitric acid before fertilizer
can be manufactured.
Ammonia fertilizers are either soled as salts or as liquid solutions. They are
tossed or sprayed on agricultural fields. As NH3 carry positive charges, it is
adsorbed onto soil particles. Than the bacteria and fungi found in the soil change
NH3+ to the NO3- in order for the plants to be able to use it . This process occurs
rapidly (beginning within 2 to 3 days) when the soil temperature starts climbing
above 50°F. The roots of the plants absorb the NO3- from the soil.
Most of the nitrogen collected by the plants is used to produce proteins, in the
form of enzymes, and nucleic acids. Nitrogen is automatically transported
through the plant from older tissue to younger tissue. This explains way
sometime we see leaves that are yellowing than others. The yellow leaves are
the older leaves that due to the underdevelopment or destruction of chloroplasts
suffer of deficient in nitrogen.
Fertilizers are responsible for sustaining one-third of the Earth's
population as they favorite plants’ growth, such as crops, which consequently
prevent from food shortage. They favorite the growth of plants as they
encourages and strengthen roots and foliage growth as well as bigger and
healthier blooms, repaired depleted soils and enable plants to take in more
water and nutrients. All this things allow a plant to grow tastier and succulent
vegetables, to be more resistant to pests, diseases, and other adverse conditions
and also to grow rapidly, which can generate bigger yields.
Furthermore it has been proved that the application of ammonia fertilizers are
on off-season plantations can increase the biomass of the plants, while also
having a beneficial effect on soil nitrogen levels during the summer season. Even
though the food produced by ammonia fertilizers are genetically modified food
(GMO), they are not noxious to humans. This because ammonia is an aqueous
solution, it is miscible with water and it can be expelled by boiling.
Although, the application of ammonia fertilizers doesn’t only provide major
quantity of food to the global population that constantly increase. Ammonia
fertilizers also cause harmful negative effects, especially on the environment that
surrounds us. An over application of the ammonia fertilizers, also known as
Nitrogen deficiency, can provoke negative environmental effects; plants may not
produce flowers or fruit, they can get burned, which causes them to shrivel and
than to die.
Ammonia fertilizers can have negative economical effects too that would effect
the growers, mainly consisting on the waste of time and money. On the other
hand ammonia fertilizers had positive economical effects, by allowing and
improving agriculture in some developing nations where otherwise it would be
impossible because of natural factors, such as aridity and drought of the soil.
Greta Rocchi
10.2
Fertilizers can also provide to the expansion of pollution. Since most plants
utilize less than one-half of the ammonia nitrogen fertilizer applied by growers,
much of the remaining nitrogen fertilizer leaches into the soil, air and water and
pollutes aquifers, rivers, lakes and oceans.
other defects of the ammonia fertilizers is that the process for their production
requires a great use of gases and energy. Through the Haber process, for a
production of approximately 500 million tons of mostly ammonia nitrogen
fertilizer per year, 3–5% of world natural gases and 1–2% of the world's annual
energy supply is consumed.
As the worldwide population increases, also the needs of food increase as
well as the development of science techniques to solve the problem. It has been
estimated that the global production of ammonia for 2012 is 198 million tones, a
35% bigger amount than the estimated 2006 global output of 146.5 million
tones. ("Nitrogen Use Efficient Crops.") Ammonia fertilizers a healthy growth and
make plants thrive. They provide food to a growing world population and
develop agriculture in developing nations.
The world needs more food, and therefore nations are increasing the use of
fertilizers in their agriculture no matters there can be some negative effect due
to their application.
As we can see in the table below ("Environmental Issues and Options."), China is
the top user of fertilizers followed by the US. We know that China as well as the
US are the two countries with the major population density in the world. This is
an evidence that fertilizers are efficient for the increasing of the food production
in order to feed national population.
Total N
Countr
Amt. used for feed/pasture
use
y
(Mt pa)
(Mt pa)
China
18.7
3.0
U.S.
9.1
4.7
France
2.5
1.3
German
2.0
1.2
y
Brazil
1.7
0.7
Canada 1.6
0.9
Turkey
1.5
0.3
UK
1.3
0.9
Mexico
1.3
0.3
Spain
1.2
0.5
Argenti
0.4
0.1
na
Greta Rocchi
10.2
Works Cited
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