Overview

Farmers and gardeners have used fertilizers, such as manure, guano and even fish for thousands of years. The advent of modern chemistry offered a stable, easily delivered and safe way to improve crop yields. Since then, chemical fertilizers have been at the forefront of agriculture. Early discoveries indicated that saltpeter could improve soil. As science continued to develop, it was discovered that plants need certain chemicals to grow, leading to more effective fertilizers.
Early Discoveries

In the mid-1600s, scientist John Glauber developed the first chemical fertilizer, a combination of saltpeter, phosphoric acid and potash. In the 1800s, chemist Justus von Liebig demonstrated how plants need minerals such as nitrogen and phosphorous to grow. In 1842, Sir John Lawes outlined a method of treating phosphate rock with sulfuric acid to produce superphosphate, an effective fertilizer, and the start of the modern chemical fertilizer industry began.
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Potassium Fertilizers

Another major step came with improved techniques for producing triple superphosphate in the late 19th and 20th centuries. European chemical companies began producing nitrophosphate fertilizer in the 1930s, which is still popular to this day. Ammonium phosphate fertilizers gained greater use in the 1960s because of improved manufacturing processes and are the most widely used phosphate fertilizers today.
Nitrogen Fertilizers

While nitrogen's role in plant growth was long understood, its use in chemical fertilizers was not considered important. Naturally occurring sources of nitrogen, such as guano, were considered adequate. As the population grew, however, more attention was given to nitrogen fertilizers. Advances in nitric acid production to make calcium nitrate, and the development of calcium cyanamide provided a more commercially available nitrogen fertilizer. In 1913, ammonia production on a commercial level began. While useful for making nitrogen fertilizers, other needs superseded any agricultural benefits. Instead, ammonia was used in explosives and industrial chemicals. After World War II, ammonia became more available and by the end of the 20th century, ammonium sulfate, calcium nitrate, sodium nitrate and calcium cyanamide were readily available. Ammonium nitrate became an important fertilizer during that time, eventually becoming the leader in fertilizers.
Potash Fertilizers

The earliest forms of potash fertilizers came from wood ash and saltpeter. Germany dominated the market for more than 75 years because of vast deposits of naturally

occurring potassium salts. During the 20th century, more deposits were discovered elsewhere and exploited to increase availability. Refinement methods improved the quality of this resource. Today, high-grade potassium chloride is the result.
Compound Fertilizers

While early chemists experimented with using multiple ingredients, the fertilizer industry focused on the production of separate fertilizers, with only one primary constituent. In the United States, however, compound fertilizers gained in popularity and now are both widely accepted and distributed internationally. At first, these fertilizers were simple mixtures of superphosphate, guano, ammonium sulfate, potassium chloride and organic waste. In the 1930s, superphosphate was ammoniated to provide a more economical way to provide nitrogen. The world consumption of chemical fertilizers has continued to increase, with compound fertilizers seeing the greatest growth.
Modern Production

Production changes were implemented in the 1950s to accommodate using granular fertilizers. Fertilizer was bagged to allow for easier handling and shipping and continues to be provided in this form today. A trend toward using liquid and dry bulk fertilizers continues to expand to meet the needs of the large-scale production of today's agribusiness.

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Growth of Indian Fertilizer Industry The Indian fertilizer industry has come a long way since the setting up of the manufacturing unit of Single Super phosphate (SSP) near Chennai in 1906 A new impetus to the growth of Indian Fertilizer industry was provided by the set up the two fertilizer plants- Fertilizer & Chemicals Travancore of India Ltd. (FACT) in Kerala and the Fertilizers Corporation of India (FCI) in Bihar. This was during the forties and the fifties. The aim was to create an industrial base that would provide India with self reliability in food grains. India witnessed significant growth of the fertilizer industry during the sixties and the seventies. By 2003, India had an installed capacity of 12.11 million MT of nitrogen and 5.36 million MT of phosphate. Today, with 57 large sized fertilizer plants manufacturing a wide variety of the nitrogenous, complex and phosphatic fertilizers, the Indian fertilizer industry is the 3rd largest producer in the world. One of the major factors that have led to the rapid increase in the production capacity of fertilizers in India is the policy environment. With the formulation and implementation of investor friendly policies, large investments poured into the private, public and co-operative sectors and this propelled the growth of the Indian fertilizer industry.

Some of the major fertilizer companies in India (in the public sector) are as follows: National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited (HFC) Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore LTD. (FACT) Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (RCF) The Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCI) Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) Madras Fertilizers Limited (MFL) Reports showed the total installed capacity of fertilizer production in 2004 to be 119.60 LMT of nitrogen and 53.60 LMT of phosphate. These figures went up to 120.61 LMT of nitrogen and 56.59 LMT of phosphate in 2007. The production of fertilizers was 113.54 LMT of nitrogen and 42.21 LMT of phosphate during 2005-06. The target of production for 2006-07 was set at 114.48 LMT of nitrogen and 48.20 LMT of phosphate. Though the target production was not met, there was a growth in production during 2006-07 as compared to the production during 2005-06. Indian fertilizer industry has reached international levels of capacity utilization by adopting various strategies for increasing the productions of fertilizers. These include the following: fertilizer units. closed fertilizer plants. fertilizers, especially urea. resources of raw materials. In order to meet the demand for gas, which is one of the prime requirements for the production of nitrogenous fertilizers, India has entered into joint ventures with foreign companies in a number of countries. Joint ventures have also been established for the supply of phosphoric acid. Indian fertilizer manufacturing companies has joined hands with companies in Senegal, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and other countries. It is, therefore, evident that the Indian fertilizer industry has witnessed extensive growth and development in a short span of time. With such extensive growth, it is not surprising that the India ranks among the leading fertilizer manufacturing countries of the world.