Nitrogen: One short burst of precipitation (rain) is better for crops and flora (all types of greenery) than a tonne of irrigated water.

Such is the magic of this marvellous gas, nitrogen, reigning in the atmosphere at 78 percent of all gases, (actually 78.09 percent) far more than all the other gases combined. So what gives to it its special place?

While life on planet Earth thrives on oxygen, which is ‘only’ 21 per cent, why does nitrogen have preference in the pecking order of things in nature? Of course, nature cannot be unfair or frivolous in matters of life and its growth. Why then does nitrogen forever top the victory stand? To find the answers, let us solve ‘the riddle of nitrogen.’

There can be no doubt whatever that oxygen is the all-important gas. It rules the roost. Without it, life does not take root. As for nitrogen, for billions of years it may well be abundant on planet Earth, but elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond, nitrogen gas is found only in traces.

Odourless and colourless, it is popularly regarded as an inert gas which may just be a popularly-held misnomer — though it is true for nitrogen found in nature ­— for it forms nitric oxide and nitrogen oxide with oxygen, ammonium with hydrogen and nitrogen sulphide with sulphur. This amply proves that nitrogen gels well with some other gases.

“It is good for the father but bad for the sons.” — Dutch saying

Nitrogen compounds are formed naturally through suitable biological activity. Compounds are also formed at high or moderate temperature with the aid of catalysts. At high temperatures, nitrogen will combine with active metals such as lithium, magnesium and titanium to form nitrites. It is also used as fertiliser, usually in the form of ammonia or ammonia-based compounds. However, in some cases it can be explosive. Before the invention of fertilisers about a century ago, it was used extensively in making of those destructive materials. Hence nitrogen is pretty versatile, as is amply evident.

The most readily acceptable evidence of the abundance of nitrogen (as compared with oxygen, for instance) is that it has more than one source of supply. Fossilised matter of all kinds alone is enough to have ensured its abundance. Also, except for a few biological and mostly non-biological affairs, it does not lend itself to chemical reactions with other elements. All told, it has served to retain the first place on the victory stand, as stated by us earlier.

The marriage of convenience between nitrogen and flora is remarkable; a cloudburst and consequent rain is manna for crops. For some time after rains, they gaily become green and spread in all directions.

It’s true that nitrogen-ammonia-based fertilisers have helped cause a green revolution for humankind, an achievement few other fields of science can equal. It is estimated that lives of more than two billion people have been saved due to easy availability of staple foods in the past one century, but there has also been the resultant killing of aquatic life, animals on land, flora and human beings as a result of the excessive use of fertilisers as well as their runoff that is threatening life of all varieties on the great planet. Farm animals are a blessing for us but the resultant manure, produced in millions of tonnes daily, adds to our nitrogen woes.

This is despite the fact that fertilisers, among other benevolent uses of nitrogen and its sister by-products, have led to the survival of humanity, thanks to the higher yields of crops and fruit production of all kinds. But we, while we pass on the baton to the next generation, we must keep vigil on the use of fertilisers that are being employed extensively, seriously damaging the land and the atmosphere.

Evidently, millions of tonnes of fertilisers are being fed into the soil yearly by greedy farmers for the sake of higher tonnage in yield without a care for the future generations, invariably overfeeding the land by far with nitrogen-ammonia-rich fertiliser to the acute and extensive detriment of the soil.

Nitrogen is also used extensively industrially. Hardly any industrial activity can be contemplated without its use. In food or in agricultural uses, it is unthinkable not to have nitrogen as the main actor. In the food industry for one, all canned activity must have it to preserve food and disallow the encroachment by bacteria for as long as it is possible under the given circumstances.

In agriculture, the manufacturing of fertiliser is not possible without extensive use of nitrogen-ammonia as a major ingredient. Keep counting and you have it as a major partner in life’s activity, as well as in nature’s. In the cases where nitrogen is required industrially, it is manufactured in factories built for that purpose. Where it is needed on a large-scale, industrial units have facilities to produce nitrogen for their own particular purpose.

But the fact remains that those who produce food for billions on the planet also have the key to its future well-being, nay the existence of life on the mother planet. Whatever we eat, or the air we reathe, has the strong footprint of the farmer. But wanton greed for profits is, enough to ruin the life of our children, and theirs.

The idea is that you keep yourself well-guarded against misuse of nitrogen-intensive fertiliser, for our generation has not done enough to cocoon you from these.

May you live long and stay healthy to witness the controlled and legitimate use of fertilisers, as well as other injurious chemicals.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 14th, 2017