Brief History of Fertilizer Use in Bangladesh

Inorganic fertilizers were introduced into this country during the early 1950s as a supplemental source of plant nutrients. But their use started increasing steadily only from the mid sixties along with the introduction and expansion of modern rice varieties accompanied by the development of irrigation facilities. The increasing trend of fertilizer use, particularly urea, still continues. Until 1980, three primary major plant nutrients (N, P, K) along with one secondary major nutrient (Ca) were supplied from fertilizer to our soils. Prior to 1990, only TSP was used by farmers as a source of P because it was the only P containing fertilizer available in the market at that time. After 1990, SSP as an alternative source of P was introduced in fertilizer market and its availability has been increasing with time. In future DAP, another source of P is likely to be available and the farmers will also use this fertilizer. The importance of S and Zn for ace culture in particular was recognized during early 1980s. Gypsum, zinc sulphate and zinc oxy-sulphate were then introduced to supply these nutrients. Very recently, the deficiencies of Mg, B and Mo have been reported for some soils and crops.