Question

Food production has significantly increased over the last century to keep up with the demands of the growing world population. According to the graph shown above, fertilizer use has also increased to improve plant growth during crop production. What is an adverse impact to a local community from the long-term use of the fertilizers?

Answer 1

At a local level, fertilizer use can lead to degradation of soil quality, pollution of water sources and increased pest resistance. This will have a major impact on the local community, especially those communities that survive on agriculture.

Step-by-step explanation:

Fertilizers are chemical compounds used in conventional agriculture to increase the amount of soil nutrients and thereby achieve a productivity gain. They are widely used today, even though we pay a high price for it. There are two major groups of fertilizers: inorganic and organic; Both can be natural or synthetic.

Although they promote a rapid growth of agricultural crops, at a local level, fertilizer use can lead to degradation of soil quality, pollution of water sources and increased pest resistance. This will have a major impact on the local community, especially those communities that survive on agriculture.

Answer 2

Repeated use of chemical fertilizers has several adverse impacts.

Step-by-step explanation:

Chemical fertilizers are used to increase crop yield and raise agricultural productivity. But a land loses its fertility over the years due to repeated fertilizer use.

Excess use of fertiliser makes the soil acidicby reducing the organic content of the soil.

When the amount of chemical fertilizers containing nitrogen is applied is beyond the amount that can be absorbed by the plants, it results in the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

When the fertilizers are washed into water bodies their nutrient content increases heavily and this depletes the oxygen in water.