Phosphogeddon
As the price of nitrogen (N) fertilizer started to go down later in the spring of 2023, the price of phosphorus (P) fertilizer stayed rather stable into the early summer of 2023. In early June, 2023, UAN28 and UAN32 were 35% lower year over year, anhydrous was 48% lower year over year, but 10-34-0 was only 18% lower year over year according to "DTN Retail Fertilizer Trends" published by www.dtnpf.com. This trend was recognized by many outside the agricultural circles because in early spring a significant number of articles have appeared in mainstream literature discussing a possible P shortage in the future. These articles focused on the use of P as a fertilizer nutrient and how P could become a problem for future food production.
These articles do a nice job of explaining how important P is for all living tissue. P is necessary for energy transfer in all living tissue, P is a very important structural element in animal tissue, and P is a very key element in genetic tissue. As one scientist claimed, "To put it simply, there is no life on earth without phosphorus."
Those in various scientific communities are claiming that the misuse of P in the agricultural community will cause significant problems in the future. They contend that the excess application of P by agriculture is not only creating environmental issues, but will eventually cause catastrophic problems with future food supplies. The food supply issue will arise because the loss of P environmentally leaves P in a position where it cannot be recycled and since the original source of P is limited, eventually the amount of available P will be reduced significantly.
Some scientists claim that a shortage of P could mirror the oil crisis of the 1970's. They believe this is possible because the deposits of P are found in large quantities in Morocco and western Sahara, China, and Algeria. Also, reserves of P in the USA are down to 1% of previous levels.
The point made by these scientific articles is that the future of P will need to be reduced by improvements in application procedures. In the near future, governments will be restricting the use of P in many different applications, but especially in the use of P in agriculture. Dr. Victor Tiedjens discussed this possibility in 1955 as a reason to investigate the Growers Program and Growers Mineral Solutions.
This is an excerpt from the Late Fall Growers Solution (2023) written by Jim Halbeisen, Director of Research.
Signup for our newsletter to stay in the loop
