We're looking at the Use of fertilisers to increase crop yield
Lets say we have a plant and we want to increase the growth of the plant. This is achieved by farming by the application of fertilisers to the soil and these normally take the form of nitrates or phosphates.
These compounds go down into the soil and are taken up in the root structure and then moved in the transpiration stream up to the leaf and used in the leaf for the construction of proteins (nitrates) or DNA/ membrane structure (phosphates).
fertilisers can be divides into two groups, organic and artificial fertilisers.
Organic group are produced from animal waste on farms. this usually takes the form of cow faeces.
the faeces go through the process of decomposition and fermentation and forms a substance known as slurry. This is applied to the field, giving the crop plant a supply of nitrate and phosphate to promote growth.
The artificial fertilisers take the form of chemicals which are synthetically produced. Two well known ones are potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate. They will go into solution in the soil water once applied to the fields.
This will release nitrates which will also promote growth.
eutrofication occurs due to the use of artificial fertilisers.
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