The role of chemical fertilizers on rice productivity in Vietnam and some countries around the world
Plants as well as cattle, shrimp, fish… to grow well, be healthy, gain weight quickly and have high productivity, need to be nourished in conditions of adequate food, with enough nutrients according to their composition. appropriate portions and proportions. Although children have large bodies and heavy weight at birth, if their mother’s milk is of poor quality and if they are raised unscientifically, they can also become stunted. For plants, the source of nutrients is minerals contained in soil, chemical fertilizers (also called mineral fertilizers) and other types of fertilizers. Among all types of fertilizers, chemical fertilizers contain the highest concentration of minerals.
Since the birth of the chemical fertilizer industry, crop productivity in the world as well as in our country has increased significantly. For example, only from 1960 to 1997, world rice productivity and output changed proportionally to the amount of chemical fertilizers used (NPK, medium, micronutrients) to fertilize rice. In the last decades of the 20th century (from 1960 to 1997), the world’s rice growing area only increased by 23.6%, but rice productivity increased by 108% and rice output increased by 164.4%, respectively. with an increase in chemical fertilizer use of 242%.
This has contributed to food stability in the world. In our country, due to the prolonged war, the chemical fertilizer production industry developed very slowly and the equipment was still very outdated. Only after the country was completely liberated did farmers have the opportunity to use more and more chemical fertilizers for crops. For example, in 1974/1976, the average amount of chemical fertilizer (NPK) applied to 1 hectare of new cultivation was only 43.3 kg/ha. In 1993-1994, after the door to agricultural production was expanded, the amount of chemical fertilizers used by farmers increased to 279 kg/hectare of cultivation.
The amount of chemical fertilizer applied has become a decisive factor in clearly increasing crop productivity and output, especially rice. Obviously, crop productivity depends very closely on the amount of chemical fertilizer applied. However, it is not true that applying more chemical fertilizers will always increase crop productivity. Plants, like humans, must be fed with enough nutrients, properly, and in a balanced nutrition for the plants to be healthy and for their productivity to be high and stable. Therefore, specialized fertilizers were born to help growers use fertilizers more conveniently.
