2. Fertilizer
Industry

3. Location of Fertilizer
factories
In Pakistan .

4. 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.

5. A mustard plant growing
in nitrate deficient soil
Effects of various mineral
deficiencies on a wheat seedling

6. 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.

7. Sindh - 92Kg per hectare
Punjab – 61Kg per hectare
NWFP – 37 Kg per hectare
Balochistan – 15Kg per
hectare

10. • 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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

14. Raw material availability :

15. Fertilizer Demands :
Cotton Regions Rice Regions

16. Sugar Cane Regions Wheat Regions

17. Infrastructure availability :
Railway Roads

18. - 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

19. -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.

20. - 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

21. 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]

22. Qs.12)
Nov. Qs. 13)
2002 June 2007

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