The Agrochemical Industry
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INTRODUCTION
*Gharda Chemicals, Ltd., Dist. Thane, Maharashtra, India.
technology, respectively. Nevertheless, it is the current practice of the farmer, particularly in advanced agriculture, to integrate nutritional and plant-protection application schedules, and even provide single formulations that include both fertilizers and pesticides. Further, plant nutrition at this stage of scientific sophistication is far more complex than the older classical "N-P-K" applications alone. Many chemicals that accelerate plant growth act as hormonal agents, modifying plant metabolic processes at some stage of development. Because these substances are manufactured and marketed by the agrochemical industry, they are included as subject matter here. Also included in this chapter are chemicals that are significant to public health. Many organisms are vectors in the dissemination of human and animal disease. Because products of the pesticide industry control the insect, the rodent, the mollusk, and so forth (the vectors), they often are the most effective and sometimes the only practical means for controlling some of the most serious health problems of humankind, especially, but not exclusively, in the underdeveloped countries. A historical analog would be the use of rodenticides in the control of plague.
Riegel's Handbook ofIndustrial Chemistry, lOth Edition Edited by Kent. Kluwer Academic/Plenwn Publishers, New York 2003
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Scope of the Chapter
This chapter deals with the chemicals used in agriculture mainly to protect, preserve, and improve crop yields. The term "agrochemical" is used broadly. Much agrochemical research and some advanced development is directed toward the introduction of genes that may provide disease, insect, or viral resistance into plants or other organisms. Further progress is being made in improving the protein, fat, or carbohyi:lrate composition of the plant itself. Microorganisms are being propagated and currently marketed that are insecticidal (e.g., Bacillus thuringiensis) fungi that are herbicidal, bacteria that are fungicidal, nematodes that are widely biocidal, and so on, are all products or candidate products for use in agriculture. Arbitrarily excluded from discussion in this chapter are those substances that serve as fundamental nutrients, which are treated in Chapters 11 and 29 on fertilizer and nitrogen
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RIEGEL'S HANDBOOK OF INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY
History
It is probable that farmers' treatment of crops with foreign substances dates back into prehistory. The Bible abounds with references to insect depredations, plant diseases, and some basic agricultural principles such as periodic withholding ofland in the fallow state. Homer speaks of "pest-averting sulfur." More recently, in the nineteenth century, there was a great increase in the application of foreign chemicals to agriculture. Discovered or, more precisely, rediscovered was the usefulness of sulfur, lime sulfur (calcium polysulfides), and Bordeaux mixture (basic copper sulfates). With the exception of the organic compound for
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