What if fertilizer was never invented?
Fertilizer is well known for its purpose in increasing food production. It is also known to produce more beautiful landscapes with fresher flowers and trees. But what would have happened if fertilizer was never invented in the very first place?
For one obvious effect, if fertilizer was never invented, the would have been a lack of food for consumption in most of the developing countries. Fertilizer acts as an aid in growing more food resources. The most common food sources that depend on fertilizer to increase their yield include rice and wheat which are the most consumed food sources around the globe.
If fertilizer was never invented, these food sources would have gone scarce and caused starvation, especially in developing countries. It is estimated that one-third of the population would have starved to death without fertilizer.
Other than that, the non-existence of fertilizer would have highly impacted the agricultural industry. For instance, if crops like oil palm and other fruiting trees were not fed with enough fertilizer, we might not have been able to enjoy large juicy fruits nor would we have been able to produce palm oil from oil palm seed at a high scale. Landscapes would also look less attractive or colourful without fertilizer.
On the other hand, if fertilizer did not exist, our water sources pollution could have been lower. This is so, phosphorus runoff from fertilizer to neighbouring lakes would have been lesser or none at all. Phosphorus runoff causes eutrophication which in return kills aquatic animals.
