To summarize, farming activities have two main aims:
1. to supply the growing population of your country (or also that of other
countries) with increasing quantities of food and fiber necessary; and
2. to provide a satisfactory income for the farmer and his family.
It is difficult to estimate exactly the contribution of mineral fertilizers to
the increase in agricultural production, because of the interaction of many
other important factors. Nonetheless, fertilizers will continue to play a decisive
role, and this irrespective of which new technologies may yet emerge. It is
estimated that, globally, roughly 40% (37% to 43%) of the world’s dietary
protein supply in the mid-1990s originated in synthetic nitrogen produced
by the Haber-Bosch process for the synthesis of ammonia 1
.