Chemical industry: the backbone of agricultural development

For a long time, food and clothing for humans depended mainly on agriculture. Although since ancient times, agriculture had always been based on a large amount of human labor, which was subject to various types of natural conditions. So the development of agriculture was very slow. During the 19th century, the use of agricultural machinery gradually improved working conditions. However, in agricultural production, it was the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that actually increased agricultural production per unit area.

Practice shows that among all measures to increase agricultural production, the role played by chemical fertilizers is from 40% to 65%. On the basis of the rise of the petrochemical industry, synthetic ammonia and urea have realized large-scale production, making the production of chemical fertilizers occupy a large proportion in chemicals. In 1985, the total production of chemical fertilizers in the world amounted to about 140 million tons, making it one of the bulk chemicals. In recent years, the development of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizers and trace element fertilizers has further satisfied the demands of different soil structures and different crops.

In the early period, people used natural animals, plants, and minerals to prevent and treat crop pests and diseases. Until the end of the 19th century, after the formation of the modern chemical industry, people began to use the arsenic preparation to kill potato beetles and to use Bordeaux mixture to prevent and treat downy mildew on grapes, thus So agriculture ushered in a new era of chemical prevention and treatment. During the 1940s, many pesticides and herbicides, such as organic chlorine and organic phosphorus, were produced and widely used in agriculture, forestry, livestock, and public health. However, some of the pesticides during this period were rich in residue or poison, causing ecological pollution, so they had been banned by many countries.

In recent years, various efficient, low toxicity and low residue pesticides have been developed, including pyrethroid, which is a bionic pesticide and will not pollute the environment. It has been put into industrial production. As a result, biopesticides have now become the most active areas in pesticide research.

In addition, plastic film (such as high-pressure polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene, etc.) has been applied in modern agriculture, which is used for covering with film or greenhouse seedlings. It can significantly increase the production of crops, so now it is becoming popular in a large area.