5.3 Fertilizers

• Achieved in farming by the application of fertilizers
• These normally take the form of Nitrate's or phosphate and frequently a combination of both
• These compounds go down into the soil and taken up the root structure and then moved in the transpiration stream up to the leaf and used in the leaf for the construction of proteins from nitrate and phosphate for DNA membrane.
• Fertilizers can be divided into two groups known as organic and artificial
• organic fertilizers and from animal waste like cow faeces after going through the process of decomposition and fermentation the farmer collects it, forms one of the compounds and substances known as slurry this applies to the fields giving the crop plant a supply of nitrate and phosphate to promote growth.
• Artificial fertilizers take the form of chemicals, which is synthetically produced e.g potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate and this can be bought as a solution to be put in the soil water which will have the same effect.