I. Empirical View
I.1 Fertilizer application rates
Fertilizer application over the long run
Total fertilizer application rates
Nitrogen fertilizer application rate
World map of average annual nitrogen balance (pounds per acre) – National Geographic1
Phosphate fertilizer application rate
Potash fertilizer application rate
I.2 Fertilizer production
Total fertilizer production
Nitrogen fertilizer production
Phosphate fertilizer production
Potash (potassium) fertilizer production
I.3 Fertilizer consumption
Nitrogen fertilizer consumption
Phosphate fertilizer consumption
Potash (potassium) fertilizer consumption
I.4 Fertilizer and nutrient prices
Phosphate and potash prices over the long-term
Global fertilizer price index
Global urea prices
I.5 Pesticide application rates
Pesticide application across the world
I.6 Pesticide production
The following graph shows the increase over the very long run.
Total global pesticide production and global pesticide imports, 1940s-2000 – Tillman et al. (2002)2 
Pesticide production by type
Estimated worldwide annual sales of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and others) in billions of dollars, 1960-1999 – Agrios (2005)3 
Annual usage of the various types of pesticides (in millions of pounds of active ingredient) and annual cost of pesticides (in millions of dollars) in the United States, 1980-1999 – Agrios (2005)4
I.7 Pesticide consumption
Total world pesticide consumption by world region, 1994-1997 – Heisey and Norton (2007)5
| Herbicides | Insecticides | Fungicides | |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | NA | NA | NA |
| India | 6.8 | 37.2 | 9.4 |
| Other Asia | 24.4 | 41 | 19.2 |
| Middle East/North Africa | 9.7 | 19.5 | 14.1 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 11.7 | 9.7 | 9 |
| Latin America/Caribbean | 85.8 | 39.8 | 31.8 |
| All developing | 138.4 | 147.2 | 83.6 |
| Transitional | 35.6 | 7.9 | 23.2 |
| Industrialized | 337.8 | 163.4 | 190.4 |
| World | 511.8 | 318.4 | 297.2 |
Pesticide consumption by country
Results of residue monitoring on domestic and imported foods by the Food and Drug Administration, 1988-1994 – Agrios (2005)6
Legend: green line - no pesticide residues, blue line - residues within legal limits, brown line - residues that were over the tolerance allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency
Pesticide residue levels in human adipose tissue and human milk in USA, 1970-1983, United Kingdom, 1963-1983, and Japan, 1976-1985 – Simon (1996) - The State of Humanity7 
II. Correlates, Determinants & Consequences
II.1 Fertilizer consumption and income
II.2 Yields tend to increase with fertilizer application
II.3 Fertilizer and land use
World fertilizer use and grainland area per person, (1950-94) – Brown (1995)8
Grain production in Australia, China, South America, and United States relative to nitrogen fertilizer use, 1961-2002 – Hatfield and Prueger (2004)9
II.4 Pesticides
Loss of food production due to diseases, insects and weeds – Agrios (2005)10
| Attainable crop production (2002 prices) | $1.5 trillion |
|---|---|
| Actual crop production (-36.5%) | $950 billion |
| Production without crop protection | $455 billion |
| Losses prevented by crop protection | $415 billion |
| Actual annual losses to world crop production | $550 billion |
| Losses caused by diseases only (14.1%) | $220 billion |
Late blight of potato and the Irish famine: itinerary of the potato blight – Agrios (2005)11
The map below shows the itinerary of the advance of the potato blight between June, when the blight was first detected in Belgium, and the end of October 1845, by which time it spread from Italy to Ireland and from Spain to the Scandinavian countries.
Map of the history of spread of ergot of sorghum, caused primarily by the fungus Claviceps africana, around the world – Agrios (2005)12 
III. Data Quality & Definition
The UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation gives the following definition of Pesticides13: 'Pesticides refer to insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, disinfectants and any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying or controlling any pest, including vectors of human or animal disease, unwanted species of plants or animals causing harm during or otherwise interfering with the production, processing, storage, transport or marketing of food, agricultural commodities, wood and wood products or animal feedstuffs, or substances which may be administered to animals for the control of insects, arachnids or other pests in or on their bodies. The term includes substances intended for use as a plant growth regulator, defoliant, desiccant or agent for thinning fruit or preventing the premature fall of fruit, and substances applied to crops either before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage and transport.
IV. Data Sources
IV.1 Fertilizer
The FAO Fertilizer Database is online here. It includes several datasets on fertilizers for countries and world regions since 2002.
The same organisation's Fertilizer Archive goes back to 1961 and is online here. For the same time span the FAO publishes data in the Fertilizers Trade Values Database here.
IV.2 Pesticides
The FAO Pesticides Use Database is online here. It includes several datasets on pesticides for countries and world regions since 1990. The FAO's Pesticides Trade Database goes back to 1961 and is online here.