A brief history

According to ancient Greek legend, the use of animal dung as fertilizer was first discovered by Hercules Hercules. Heracross, the son of Zeus, the lord of the gods, was a demigod hero who performed 12 miracles, one of which was to raise the cowshed of King Augias of Elis with 300 cows in one day Clean up. He diverted the Elphius River, flushed the cow dung with the river, and deposited it on the nearby land, resulting in a bumper crop. Of course this is a myth, but it also shows that people at the time were aware of the effect of manure on crop yields. The ancient Greeks also found that the crops grown on the old battlefields were particularly lush, and thus realized that the carcasses of people and animals were very effective fertilizers. The method of fertilizing by pouring animal blood on the ground is also mentioned in the Bible.
For thousands of years, manure has been used as the main fertilizer in both Europe and Asia. After entering the 18th century, the world's population grew rapidly. At the same time, the industrial revolution that broke out in Europe brought a large number of people into the cities, aggravated the shortage of food supply, and became a cause of social unrest. Chemists have been conducting scientific research on the nutrition of crops since the mid-18th century. The two popular theories of plant nutrition in the early 19th century were the "humus" theory and the "viability" theory. The former believes that the carbon required by plants does not come from carbon dioxide in the air, but from humus; the latter believes that plants can use their own unique vitality to produce plant ash components. In 1840, the famous German chemist Liebig published the book "Application of Chemistry in Agriculture and Physiology", which established the theory of plant mineral nutrition and the theory of return, and believed that only minerals are the only nutrients for green plants, and organic matter is only when it is It is nutritious for plants only when it decomposes to release minerals. Liebig also pointed out that the mineral nutrients that crops have sucked from the soil must be returned to the soil in the form of fertilizer, otherwise the soil will become increasingly poor. As a result, the theories of "humus" and "vitality" were denied, which led to a revolution in agricultural theory and provided a theoretical basis for the birth of chemical fertilizers.
In 1828, the German chemist Wöhler (F. Wöhler, 1800-1882) synthesized urea artificially for the first time in the world. According to the "vital theory" popular in the chemical circle at that time, urea and other organic substances contain some kind of vitality, and it is impossible to synthesize them artificially. Wheeler's research broke down the absolute boundaries between inorganic and organic matter. But the fertilizer use of urea was not recognized at the time. It was not until more than 50 years later that synthetic urea was put on the market as a fertilizer.
In 1838, the English country gentleman L.B. Ross treated phosphate rock with sulfuric acid to make phosphate fertilizer, which became the world's first chemical fertilizer.
In 1840, the German chemist J. von Liebig (1803-1873) published the book "The Application of Chemistry in Agriculture and Physiology", which established the theory of plant mineral nutrition and the theory of restitution, completely denying the prevailing "" The two plant nutrition theories, humus" and "vitality", have laid a theoretical foundation for the invention and application of chemical fertilizers. Liebig also invented potash in 1850.
Around 1850, Rolls invented the earliest nitrogen fertilizer. In 1909, German chemist F. Haber (F. Haber, 1868-1934) and Bosch (C. Bosch, 1874-1940) co-founded the "Haber-Bosch" ammonia synthesis method, which solved the problem of large-scale production of nitrogen fertilizers. technical problem.
Since the 1950s, the application of chemical fertilizers has been applied on a large scale. According to statistics, among various measures to increase agricultural production, the role of chemical fertilizers accounts for about 30%.