Fertilizers

During the growth of crops, nutrients and minerals (including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium) are extracted from the soil. These building blocks are not only used by the plant for growth, but also to defend itself against diseases and pests. To prevent the soil fertility from declining after repeated harvesting, fertilizers are used to restore nutrients and minerals to the soil. There is a cycle when the nutrients and minerals in these fertilizers can be traced back to nutrients that were previously extracted from the soil. In many cases, this cycle is not closed, whereby nutrients on the one hand leak out of the local cycle or disappear as waste, so that new nutrients have to be added all the time that are not yet part of the cycle. Source: Wikipedia