Discussion of agriculture in third world countries

Over the last decade or so, chemical fertilizers are being used increasingly in third world countries.  This is a good thing in some ways and a negative thing in other, perhaps more important ways.

First of all, it is good that poorer, undereducated people are able to use modern technology to increase harvests and more food is a good thing.  Especially in these places where people are having trouble getting nutrition.  Nutrition is getting more and more difficult to produce for the growing populations, so it's a good thing that they're able to produce more food.

One negative consequence of this increase is that there is more chemical run-off of fertilized water from the fields, into waterways, which eventually reach the ocean.  Phosphorous, Nitrogen and Potassium, the major elements of chemical fertilizers, are important elements for healthy plant growth.  Unfortunately, when suspended in water, they are also useful for growing algae.  Algae in the ocean or in large bodies of water, reduce evaporation from those bodies of water.

If large portions of the ocean were to get covered over with algae, then our planet could become a desert planet.  I would expect the temperatures to continue rising, and for the atmosphere to dry out.  Less cloud cover means less light is reflected back out into space, so that the problem is self-compounding.  Many of the problems that are due to carbon debt behave similarly.  The problem causes other problems which exacerbate the problem even more.

My take on the problem is that we need educated people to get involved with managing these land resources.  If there is a limited quantity of arable land in the world, and it's getting more and more important to our growing population, then why is it being managed by the poorest, most uneducated people on the planet?  I have seen some efforts by Bill Gates and others to educate these people, but it seems like it's mostly geared towards getting them to use the fertilizers, rather then getting them to use sustainable farming techniques to grow more food without the negative impacts associated with modern fertilization techniques.