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Fertilizers and Food Production

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Kent and Riegel’s Handbook of Industrial Chemistry and Biotechnology

Abstract

Fertilizers provide plants with the nutrients they need for their growth and development. Plants live, grow, and reproduce by taking up water and nutrients, carbon dioxide from the air, and energy from the sun. Apart from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which collectively make up 90–95 percent of the dry matter of all plants, other nutrients needed by plants come essentially from the media in which they grow—essentially in the soil. The other nutrients are subdivided into primary nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) and secondary nutrients (calcium, magnesium, and sulfur). In addition, plants also need other nutrients in much smaller amounts, and they are referred to as micro-nutrients (boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFDC, Muscle Shoals, Alabama

    Amit H. Roy (President and CEO)

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  1. Amit H. Roy
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James A. Kent Ph.D. (Professor of Chemical Engineering and Dean of Engineering)

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Roy, A.H. (2007). Fertilizers and Food Production. In: Kent, J.A. (eds) Kent and Riegel’s Handbook of Industrial Chemistry and Biotechnology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-27843-8_24

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