Fertilizer, a natural or artificial substance containing the chemical elements that improve the growth and productiveness of plants. Fertilizers enhance the natural fertility of the soil or replace the chemical elements taken from the soil by previous crops.

The use of manure and composts as fertilizers is probably almost as old as agriculture. Modern chemical fertilizers include one or more of the three elements that are most important in plant nutrition: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Of secondary importance are the elements sulfur, magnesium, and calcium.

Most nitrogen fertilizers are obtained from synthetic ammonia; this chemical compound (NH3) is used either as a gas or in a water solution, or it is converted into salts such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, and ammonium phosphate, but packinghouse wastes, treated garbage, sewage, and manure are also common sources of it. Phosphorus fertilizers include calcium phosphate derived from phosphate rock or bones. The more soluble superphosphate and triple superphosphate preparations are obtained by the treatment of calcium phosphate with sulfuric and phosphoric acid, respectively. Potassium fertilizers, namely potassium chloride and potassium sulfate, are mined from potash deposits. Mixed fertilizers contain more than one of the three major nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Mixed fertilizers can be formulated in hundreds of ways.

Fertilizer is any substance or material added to soil that promotes plant growth. There are many fertilizer varieties, and most contain nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Organic fertilizers (manure and compost) are made from animal feces, and plant or animal decomposed matter.