Fertilizer Industry

Location of Fertilizer factoriesIn Pakistan .

Value of Fertilizers to Pakistan• Most of the agriculturally important regions

have soils lacking in nitrogenous matter – an essential component required for healthy and high yields

• High yielding variety (HYV) seeds use a lot of nutrients and some bulky crops like sugar cane exhaust soils of nutrients

• To solve these problems and to maintain and increase high yields especially of cash cops are fertilizers essential to Pakistan.

• The increase in water logging and salinity has also increased fertilizer use as farmers want to maintain and even increase crop production in reduced area.

DAP is considered to be a balanced fertilizer. Most common commercial fertilizers contain phosphate, which is an essential nutrient for stimulating root growth and plant health. DAP, or diammonium phosphate, is a widely applied phosphorous fertilizer, and its use has been dramatically increasing since the 1960s.

Effects of various mineral deficiencies on a wheat seedling

A mustard plant growing in nitrate deficient soil

Through this process, ammonia is formed. Hydrogen and nitrogen are heated to 400-500°C at a pressure of 130-300 atmospheres in the presence of iron catalyst to form ammonia. Ammonia is cooled and liquefied for the next step.

Sindh - 92Kg per hectarePunjab – 61Kg per hectareNWFP – 37 Kg per hectareBalochistan – 15Kg per hectare

• All types of fertilizers formed are palletized

• They are packed in plastic bags

• Fertilizer bags are transported via road (on trucks and lorries) and via railway to agricultural lands

• Farmers manually or mechanically spread it out on lands after ploughing and before planting the seeds

• Palletized fertilizer spreads to a large area

• All types of fertilizers formed are palletized

• They are packed in plastic bags

• Fertilizer bags are transported via road (on trucks and lorries) and via railway to agricultural lands

• Farmers manually or mechanically spread it out on lands after ploughing and before planting the seeds

• Palletized fertilizer spreads to a large area

These areas are on generally flat lands of plain areas which enabled easy construction of factories due to more accessibility. There was also proper infrastructure because of the same reason.

Nitrogen and mineral rocks are available virtually everywhere in Pakistan but natural gas isn’t. This is why these factories are situated either near gas fields themselves (in upper Sindh) or are linked to natural gas by pipelines. Their site is also close to sources of water. Since raw materials were readily available, their transportation costs were reduced and fertilizers could be produced steadily.

with high population density meaning cheap labor is available. Although a capital intensive

These factories are majorly situated in areas with high population density meaning cheap labor is available. Although a capital intensive large-scale industry, fertilizer industry still requires labor for various tasks (e.g. loading and unloading raw materials and fertilizer bags)

Being a large-scale industry, it is largely mechanized for which power supply is essential. These factories are located along national grid and near thermal power plants (those in Punjab and Sindh) and the factory in Haripur is near Tarbela HEP plant.

These factories are located where there is a proper infrastructure. There is a dense road and railway network near the factories. This enables raw materials to be rapidly supplied to them and fertilizers to be supplied from them.

These factories are situated in the middle of agriculturally important regions especially for cash crops like wheat, cotton, sugar-cane and rice. To increase their yields fertilizers are essential and an increase in fertilizer use has resulted in higher output production.

MAPS :

Labour(Population) Electricity Supply

Raw material availability :

Fertilizer Demands :

Cotton Regions Rice Regions

Wheat RegionsSugar Cane Regions

Infrastructure availability :

Railway Roads

- Pakistan has limited natural gas reserves so fertilizer industry cannot consume more than a fixed portion because more of it is needed for further industrialization.

- There is a lack of skilled labor.

- It is a capital intensive industry and a lot of it is needed for improvements in machinery or to set up more factories.

- Although power is available, frequent load shedding hinders output.

- Due to lack of skilled labor, institutional mismanagement occurs.

-Deforestation had to be carried out to establish factories.

-Eutrophication occurs when nitrate fertilizers leech into soil and cause algal blooms which deplete rivers of oxygen. This pollutes water and fish die.

-Pollutant gases such as oxides of carbon and nitrogen are emitted during fertilizer preparation which cause air pollution.

-Drinking water into which nitrates have leeched is toxic at high concentrations- results in several disorders.

-Ammonia can leak into air. It can cause respiratory disorders.

-Fertilizers are expensive to buy and only large landowners can use it sufficiently.

- It uses a lot of power and since most of power generated in Pakistan is thermal, it indirectly increases petroleum import bills.

- Fertilizers have to be imported as Pakistan is not self sufficient in fertilizer production. This further burdens the economy.

Eutrophication

Sloution

• A Bio fertilizer  is a substance which contains living micro-organisms which, when applied to seeds, plant surfaces, or soil, colonizes the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant.

1) a) Explain why most fertilizer factories are in the Punjab and Northern Areas of Sindh? [4]

2) Name the two raw materials (apart from natural gas) which are used to make fertilizers? [2]

3) Why is it important that Pakistan manufactures its own fertilizers? [3]

*P2/M/J/07*

1) What environmental damage can occur when a new fertilizer factory is built in the rural areas? [4]

Qs.12)Nov. 2002

Qs. 13)June 2007

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