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Topic: Soaring fertilizer prices could see millions more undernourished - page 2. (Read 293 times)

legendary
Activity: 2772
Merit: 1514
Even if alternative fertilizers are utilized, you still need them in scale to make up for the supply that was diminished from the war.

As with most things, food shortages are going to effect impoverished countries the most. Rich countries will just dedicate federal funds towards food subsidies and if they have a GDP large enough, it will be sustainable until the shortages resolve itself. Poor countries will lose millions of people over time before shortages resolve themselves.
legendary
Activity: 4214
Merit: 4458
one mega thing about the requirement of fertiliser is ...
industrial farming

100= years ago the soil was ripe. rich with fertile soil untouched for millenia..  naturally ripe without mans intervention needed to add anything..
feet/metres deep of nutrients settled in over millenia of autumns .
which due to non industrial farming back then replenished each year

but industrial farming make the land naturally infertile by using up the normal rich soil in just 60 days per harvest. where they then had to plough(churn/flip) the soil to bring the deeper soil to the top.. and then more recently had to mix in slurry into infertile soil to add fertility..

now they say animal slurry is bad due to excess phosphorus


legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1162
www.Crypto.Games: Multiple coins, multiple games
The reality is that we are just way too late to changing our farming methods, the year is 2023 and we are still basing our food production on huge lands and tractors and farmers who would raise those crops.

I am sorry but this had to change long time ago into something that would be just vertical farming in warehouses and you could grow 10x more crops in 10% of the land required, and a lot more healthier that way as well since there won't be any pest or anything that would go there and bugs and dirt etc etc. It would be pure clean and profitable while being organic and healthy at the same time. We need to make that the common thing for sure.
Ucy
sr. member
Activity: 2576
Merit: 401
One of the main reasons the world always come to foolish conclusions generated by research and computer simulations is that they remove the CREATOR of Heaven and Earth out of the equation. I remember their predictions about covid and others, but they failed to factor in the realignments that already occurred especially shortly before covid pandemic.   The poor who do not depend on the evil system are heavily protected.  
By the way, synthetic fertilizer do not produce good foods nor  rich harvest. You need the right farmers to produce good foods and rich harvest not those that believe that poisoning foods with toxic chemicals will make them grow. Try and grow some foods in greenhouse with soil rich in natural/organic manure and you probably notice the difference. How are you sure the synthetic fertilizer are not  filled with growth hormones?
legendary
Activity: 3220
Merit: 1344
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
true organic fertiliser is literally free.. farmers need to dispose of the poop slurry because they will be fined if they just let it seep into ground water, rivers
so they are happy to give it away to horticulture farmers

however having to "manufacture/process" to produce fertilizers from organics(compost) takes time and land and money thus no longer a free by product. and its this manufacturing of compost which this topic is partly addressing by showing fertiliser prices are increasing

I am not that optimistic about organic fertilizer replacing synthetic ones. First of all, not enough quantity is available. And secondly, organic fertilizers can't provide all the nutrients that the plants need. A fraction of the Ammonia-based fertilizers can be replaced with organic fertilizer such as cow dung and poultry waste. But I don't think that Potash fertilizers can be replaced with any of the organic alternatives (glauconite has been tried as a replacement without much success). At this point, Russia and Belarus account for almost 40% of the global potash exports.
legendary
Activity: 4214
Merit: 4458
In terms of research, there are already a lot of studies that are looking into producing fertilizers from organic sources and sustainable ways to answer the problems that we are currently facing. All we need is implementation. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?qs=fertilizer

As you can see from the link above, there are already almost 200k researchers that are tackling the problem of the global challenge that we have right now, just on a single publisher. Imagine the other publishers' research as well. There are already a lot, but there should be a significant impact factor in the actual application of the study.

true organic fertiliser is literally free.. farmers need to dispose of the poop slurry because they will be fined if they just let it seep into ground water, rivers
so they are happy to give it away to horticulture farmers

however having to "manufacture/process" to produce fertilizers from organics(compost) takes time and land and money thus no longer a free by product. and its this manufacturing of compost which this topic is partly addressing by showing fertiliser prices are increasing
copper member
Activity: 2786
Merit: 1256
Try Gunbot for a month go to -> https://gunbot.ph
In terms of research, there are already a lot of studies that are looking into producing fertilizers from organic sources and sustainable ways to answer the problems that we are currently facing. All we need is implementation. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?qs=fertilizer

As you can see from the link above, there are already almost 200k researchers that are tackling the problem of the global challenge that we have right now, just on a single publisher. Imagine the other publishers' research as well. There are already a lot, but there should be a significant impact factor in the actual application of the study.
legendary
Activity: 4214
Merit: 4458
california will suffer first

#vegan #climate  =  #no-cow-poop

how are they suppose to have organic fertiliser if they dont want cows in farms pooping and having that poop slurry collected and sold to other farmers..

oh wait.. they will probably say put human sewerage onto lettuce fields
oh great yummy. all human medicated bio-waste, with sprinkles of contraceptive pill , steroids and a layer of sanitary pads and wetwipes.. oh and then a nice splash of oxycodone or whatever legal high people take these days.... yummy.
legendary
Activity: 882
Merit: 1018
One of the main reason for the prediction of an increase in the price of fertilizer might be the high cost of raw materials such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Apart from the use of organic fertilizer to substitute the scarce or expensive NPK fertilizer seeking for alternative raw materials might be a good option.

Most countries have alternative raw materials that can serve as alternative raw materials but they have failed to research and explore these resources because they can cheaply import fertilizers from other countries. This high price of fertilizer is a wakeup call to lazy nations to look inward and tap thier idle raw materials. If they can produce thier own fertilizer, the price wouldn't be high. Most country would also increase thier production capacity.There is a report that Indonesia has large deposit raw materials such as leucite, phlogopite, trachyte and biotite that can make them a major exporter of fertilizer. Nigeria is currently producing below it's capacity because of lack of investment in the fertilizer sector.
hero member
Activity: 2478
Merit: 621
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
Fertilizer is important for agricultural processes and lack of it can lead to food scarcity. No doubt that fertilizer is not the only thing or commodity that is affected by high inflation globally but I think it should be made a priority by governments across to avoid shortage of it. If the government is not showing concern in fertilizer production , this means that agriculture will suffer and food shortage will increase. Like in Nigeria, this is becoming a bigger challenge to do agriculture with the price of fertilizer increasing over 100% which is double of the initial price and this makes the smaller farmers whose products can go alongway to support commercial farmers helping to push price of products down is now lacking. The result of this is that commercial farmers have no competition because even small farmers who do house hold farming join in the bulk of the market buyers of agriculture products.
hero member
Activity: 644
Merit: 592
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
It's not news that inflation is plaguing the world's economy, this is expectedly not leaving any aspect of the economy out. The price of fertilizer has been increasing, it's not new because it's a chain reaction as the world battles inflation and inflation is seriously winning. Just like many households would not be able to afford more nutrients naturally because of inflation, that is just the way the increase in the price of fertilizer affects it, it's not new at all.

This is where the action of a responsible government is required. They need to subsidise this so that the effect on the agricultural produce would be minimal to the citizens.
legendary
Activity: 2562
Merit: 1441
Quote

High fertilizer prices could put an additional 100 million people at risk of undernourishment, a study suggests.

The war in Ukraine has led to the blockade of millions of tons of wheat, barley and corn, but reduced food exports from the region are less of a driver of food price rises than feared, researchers say.

Instead, a modeling study led by University of Edinburgh researchers suggests surging energy and fertilizer prices will have by far the greatest impact on food security in coming decades.

Until now, how energy and fertilizer price rises and export restrictions affects future global food prices was poorly understood. There has also been little analysis to quantify the scale of harm that hikes in the price of food could have on human nutritional health and the environment.

The team used a global land-use computer model to simulate the effects of export restrictions and spikes in production costs on food prices, health and land use until 2040.

Their simulations suggest the combined effect of export restrictions, increased energy costs and mid-2022 fertilizer prices—which are three times higher than at the start of the previous year—could cause food costs to rise by 81% in 2023 compared to 2021 levels.

Export restrictions account for only a small fraction of the simulated price rises, the team says. Halting exports from Russian and Ukraine would increase food costs in 2023 by 2.6%, while spikes in energy and fertilizer prices would cause a 74% rise.

Food price rises would lead to many people's diets becoming poorer, the team says.

The findings suggest there could be up to one million additional deaths and more than 100 million people undernourished if high fertilizer prices continue. The greatest increases in deaths would be in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East.

The modeling estimates that sharp increases in the cost of fertilizers—which are key to producing high yields—would greatly reduce their use by farmers. Without fertilizers more agricultural land is needed to produce the world's food, the team says.

The simulations indicate that by 2030 this could increase agricultural land by an area the size of much of Western Europe—Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the U.K. This would have severe impacts on deforestation, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, the team says.

The study is published in the journal Nature Food. It also involved researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, Rutgers University in the U.S. and the University of Aberdeen.

Dr. Peter Alexander, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said, "This could be the end of an era of cheap food. While almost everyone will feel the effects of that on their weekly shop, it's the poorest people in society, who may already struggle to afford enough healthy food, who will be hit hardest.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative is a welcome development and has largely allowed Ukraine food exports to be re-established, but the immediacy of these issues appears to have diverted attention away from the impact of fertilizer prices. While fertilizer prices are coming down from the peaks of earlier this year, they remain high and this may still feed through to continued high food price inflation in 2023. More needs to be done to break the link between higher food prices and harm to human health and the environment."


https://phys.org/news/2022-12-soaring-fertilizer-prices-millions-undernourished.html


....


This sounds troubling.

Quote
Their simulations suggest the combined effect of export restrictions, increased energy costs and mid-2022 fertilizer prices—which are three times higher than at the start of the previous year—could cause food costs to rise by 81% in 2023 compared to 2021 levels.

Maybe it is a good time to research methods of producing organic fertilizers? Could there be a good financial opportunity surrounding that sector, if indeed fertilizer costs and food costs are projected to rise?

Or is the media merely being overly negative and pessimistic with this latest series of doom and gloom?

One of the coolest methods I found to produce organic fertilizer is to construct "pigeon towers". They're essentially structures that are built to be friendly for pigeons and birds to roost in. They funnel bird poop into areas which make it easy to collect and use as a natural, organic, fertilizer. In the world of hot start up concepts surely that idea has to count for something? In the old world, some civilizations were known for constructing massive pigeon towers, which appeared as giant stone monoliths, for purposes of simplifying the collection of bird waste.

Of course, there are many other methods. I'm certain there be no shortage of great ideas for producing organic fertilizers as ideas in this era are in abundant supply.
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