Nitrogen Fertilizers Means Better Yield! and Farmers Now Know It

Nitrogen is regarded as a ubiquitous element in the environment. It is one of the essential plant nutrients that are increasingly being used on crops to boost yield and enhance crop quality.

Growing awareness regarding soil profile and nutritional balance favours nitrogenous fertilizer market growth globally. According to a report by The Insight Partners, The nitrogenous fertilizer market was valued at US$ 72,537.57 million in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.7% from 2019 to 2027 to reach US$ 100,304.42 million by 2027. The market in North America is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period. The abundant availability of raw materials, coupled with the rise in commercial farming activities, is expected to boost the growth of the market.

Nitrogen is essentially used to maintain the pH of soil, along with regulating the plant metabolism for food processing and chlorophyll formation. Although being a vital component, the deficiency of nitrogen is perhaps the most common issues affecting the plant growth. To address this issue, nitrogen is supplied synthetically to the plants in the form of fertilizers through soil application. Nitrogen fertilizers provide texture to the crop, enhance the quality and fertility of soil, enhance the nutrition uptake of soil, and boost the overall output of agricultural practices. Therefore, nitrogen-based fertilizers are mandatory for farming with scarce land availability for crop production, which helps lower the pressure to enhance crop productivity.

Urea is freely soluble in water and is among the cheapest nitrogenous fertilizers, considering the per-unit cost of nutrients. It is offered in solid, white, granular, and slightly hygroscopic form. It is also applied in solution form as a spray. Most of the crops react effectively to the urea application. Upon application to the soil, urea undergoes decomposition in the presence of urease enzyme synthesized by soil microorganisms. The conversion of urea into nitrate, as a result of a complete decomposition, takes place in about one week’s time. Urea is relatively resistant to leaching.

Urea accounted for the largest share of the global market in 2018, whereas the market for ammonium sulfate is expected to grow.

According to analysts, till a few years back, cereals and grains account for the largest share of the global nitrogenous fertilizer market, but now oilseeds and pulses are is expected to register the highest demand. On the global scale, cereal and grains yields, and fertilizer nitrogen consumption have increased in widely during the past four decades, and the two are highly correlated with one another. However, substantial differences exist in nitrogenous fertilizer usage and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) among the crops. The factors leading to these differences need to be understood to estimate the future requirements of nitrogenous fertilizers.

The major players operating in the global nitrogenous fertilizer market are Bunge Limited, CF Industries Holdings, Inc., EuroChem Group, Koch Fertilizer, LLC, Nutrien Ltd, OCI Nitrogen, SABIC Group, Sinofert, Togliattiazot (TOAZ) and Yara International ASA among many others.

Nitrogen fertilizer is one of the most regular fertilizer categories produced with different chemical combinations of nitrogen. Once applied to the fields the fertilizers are absorbed by plants are converted into various other forms through chemical reactions. Their application helps confer better texture and color to plants, thus improving agricultural productivity.