The Health Cost of Fertilizer

Abstract

We present an interdisciplinary view of looking at the optimal level of fertilizer use. We model nutrient level in the soil as renewable and natural resource which can be extracted by the fertilizer use in the form of crop-yield. Our model show that under free access, the use of fertilizer per unit land is greater than private optimal level which is greater than social optimal level. Our theoretical modelling further show that nutrients extinction is possible if fertilizer use is too high. We test the theoretical model in the data, major theoretical results are verified. Our results show that there exists an optimal level of fertilizer use (a function of crop and soil characteristics) beyond which there is a possibility of severe adverse impacts on both soil and human health. Our results are robust to regional and temporal trends.