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Various fertilizers have been widely used in agricultures and horticultures. More than 400 million tons fertilizers are used in the world every year. However,fertilizer cannot be resealed in dry soil, and could be flashed out with heaven rain or irrigation without controlling into river, which results in polluting water resources. Actually, fertilizers have already caused serious pollution for rivers and degeneration of land. Therefore, various controlled release fertilizers have been developed. This paper reviewed development of controlled release fertilizer based on both fundamental issues such as system designing and mechanisms, and materials used for coating as well as their fabrication. So far most of the materials used for coating are synthetic polymeric materials, such as PS, PE etc.,which are not biodegradable. Environmentally friendly biodegradable coatings have attracted increasingly attention,but still in development stage in laboratory. On the other hand, dry and desertification are big challenges for agriculture in China. Using superabsorbent polymers as coating materials could add the function of keeping moisture for the fertilizer, which is particularly important for dry area. It is expected that the superabsorbent polymer coatings could be favorable for crops through helping seed sprout; increasing sprouting ratio, reducing irrigation and enhancing fertilizer efficiency etc.