CONFERENCE – QUANTIFYING RESPONSIBLE PLANT NUTRITION
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS: "Why the Fertiliser Industry Should Encourage the Quantification of Plant Nutrition".
A substantial proportion of world food supplies depends on the use of mineral fertilisers. It is difficult to know the exact contribution because of interactions with other factors. In the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) 1999 Travis P. Hignett lecture, November 1999, Dr. Vaclav Smil, University Distinguished Professor, University of Manitoba, estimated that, globally, 40% of the protein in the human diet is derived from nitrogen fixed by the Haber-Bosch process.
Already at the beginning of the twentieth century there was considerable concern on the part of scientists that nitrogen available from natural resources was proving inadequate. Without chemically fixed nitrogen agriculture could not support today’s population even at the expense of environmental degradation. And the nitrogen must evidently be accompanied by the other plant nutrients. Whatever is stated in this paper, large quantities of mineral fertilisers will continue to be required to feed the world’s population.
From its inception in the middle of the nineteenth century until the mid-1970s, the fertiliser industry was, at least in large part, a knowledge-based industry. Today it is largely a commodity industry. The result has been considerable restructuring of the fertiliser industry in West Europe and North America, and a very large reduction in the industry’s agricultural research and extension activities. In the process, many intellectual resources have been lost.
The points made in this paper may be summarised as follows:
– There is increasing pressure on farmers to use fertilisers as effectively as possible, partly by regulation partly by persuasion.
– Producers and retailers add value to the products they sell by offering various services to farmers.
– Information technology is playing an increasing role in the communication of information and the provision of services.
– During the past 25 years the fertiliser industry has become increasingly a commodity industry as the production of the basic fertiliser materials has tended to move to locations where there are ample reserves of natural gas, phosphate rock and potash ores respectively.
– The pressure to improve the efficiency of fertiliser use represents a challenge and opportunity for the fertiliser industry to become more "knowledge-based".
– These services all require quantification, which is greatly facilitated by trends in automatic recording and computer technology.
Keith F Isherwood, IFA, Paris
23 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: "Setting the Scene for Agriculture – A Farmer’s View".
David R Richardson, Farmer and Commentator, UK.