Question

What are fertilizers? Why are they needed? What do you mean by NPK fertilizers?

Answer 1

Hint: If anywhere plants are not well developing or growing properly due to lack of any essential nutrients, some chemical is given to them.

Complete Answer:
- Fertilizers are natural or synthetic materials which are used to provide one or more essential nutrients to plants. fertilizers are provided that plants to their proper growth and developments.
- Fertilizer whether natural or artificial substance containing the chemical elements that improve the growth and productiveness of plants.

- Without fertilizers, nature struggles to replenish the nutrients in the soil. When crops are harvested, important nutrients are removed from the soil, because they follow the crop and end up at the dinner table.
- If the soil is not replenished with nutrients through fertilizing, crop yields will deteriorate over time. Careful analyzing and fertilizing of crops enables a chain that provides humans with nutritional food:
1) The nutrients feed the soil
2) The soil feeds the plants
3) Plants feed animals and people

The three most common mineral fertilizers are those based on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. NPK represents the value of three macronutrients N means nitrogen, P means phosphorus and K means potassium. Nitrogen helps in the growth of a plant's leaves, phosphorus helps in the growth of root and flower/fruit development and potassium helps in overall function plants correctly perform.

Note: Phosphorus from fertilizer can cause algae to accumulate in lakes and ponds, killing fish by robbing them of oxygen. Fertilizers can also contaminate water with an overabundance of phosphates and nitrates, making it unsafe for consumption.