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Chemical fertilizer industry lags behind
Source:  China Online, 5 February 2001

 The Nongmin Ribao (Farmers’ Daily) 9 March 2001 details the four main disadvantages that China’s chemical fertilizer industry faces compared with that of developed countries:
1.   High-concentration chemical fertilizers account for a very low proportion
 Of the more than 74 million tons of nitrogenous fertilizer produced annually in the world, more than 80 per cent is carbamide, the rest synthetic ammonium products. Few countries produce such fertilizers as ammonium carbonate, ammonium chloride, or ammonium sulphate.  If they do, the output is minimal.
 Despite significant development in this area over the last 10 years, China’s carbamide output is only 49.6 per cent of total fertilizer output.  More than half of its nitrogenous fertilizer is low-concentration fertilizer.
 Of the more than 33 million tons of phosphate fertilizer produced annually worldwide, high-cencentration ammonium phosphate, coarse whiting and ammonium account for 77 per cent.  More specifically, 59 per cent is ammonium phosphate, 10 per cent is coarse whiting and 8 per cent is ammonium nitrate.
 China’s high-concentration phosphate fertilizer, such as ammonium phosphate, is 17 per cent of the total output.  More than 80 per cent of its phosphate fertilizer is low-concentration phosphate fertilizer, far below the world average.
2.   The compound rate of chemical fertilizers is too low
 Raising the compound (compost) rate of fertilizer can boost the effective utilization rate of fertilizer, so it is to every country’s advantage to do so.
 Of the total chemical fertilizer output in 1996, 30 per cent was compound fertilizer, 15 per cent nitrogenous fertilizer and 50 to 60 per cent, phosphate and potassium fertilizer.  All were processed to become compound fertilizer prior to application.
 Some developed countries compound (compost) 50 per cent of nitrogenous fertilizer and 80 to 90 per cent of phosphate and potassium fertilizer prior to application, so that the total compound rate reaches 70 to 80 per cent.
 But only 7.9 per cent of China’s output is compound fertilizer, and 90 per cent is directly applied as simple fertilizer.
3.   The application intensity of chemical fertilizers is much too low
 At present, China has 2,068 billion mu (137.94 million hectares, or 340.86 million acres) of cultivated land.  An average of 11.7 kg. (25.79 pounds) of fertilizer is applied per mu.  Research has shown that when China’s grain output hits 350-400 kg (771.61-881.84 lbs) per mu, the optimal application intensity should be 18-20 kg (39.68-44.09 lbs) mu.
 This fact indicates that China has a large potential fertilizer market.
4.   Chemical fertilizer producers are too dispersed and small in scale
 By the end of 1997, China had more than 1,450 fertilizer producing enterprises, including 812 nitrogenous fertilizer producers, 470 phosphate fertilizer producers, 3 potassium fertilizer producers and 168 other fertilizer producers.
 The number of chemical fertilizer enterprises in China is almost equal to the total in other nations.  But China’s enterprises are all too small to produce the level of output found in other countries.  In addition, they are too scattered.