Focus on . . . Fertilizer.
No country has been able to increase agricultural productivity without expanding
the use of mineral fertilizers. 
Farmers and their agricultural
advisors know this and so do economists and policy makers. What many seem
less clear about is that adding more of what the crop has already absorbed
to capacity is unproductive, expensive, wasteful and environmentally damaging.
So it is the balanced use of fertilizer that raises agricultural production
and helps to stimulate rural development.
Many are concerned that mineral fertilizers have a deleterious effect upon the environment and, if used wastefully, this is undoubtedly true. But soil infertility is also harmful. It leads not only to the physical damage of soil erosion but is also the cause of much of the poverty experienced by so many of the world's farming families. Balanced use of fertilizer can help not only the health of farmers' fields but the economic health of their families and, indeed, that of the nation.
A ship carrying fertilizer docks at an East African port. Are the cranes working? Has the cargo been cleared for offloading? Are there enough rail trucks available, or secure storage facilities? If the answer to any of these questions is "no", who pays? . . .
It is market day in Siaya District in western Kenya. A local NGO has set up an unusual stall and, with megaphone and posters, is attracting a crowd. Farmers and smallholders press forward, keen to purchase the small packets, some weighing no more than 100g. What is in them? . . .
Lighting a flare for magnesium
Recent studies undertaken at Cambridge University Farm, UK, reveal the importance of potassium and nitrogen on magnesium uptake. Described by Philip Draycott and Marc Allison in The Fertiliser Society Proceedings No. 412, "Magnesium Fertilisers in Soil and Plants: Comparisons and Usage", the work . . .
Argentine fields have taken on a very different aspect in recent years. Cereals now occupy less than half the cultivated land area, a big drop from the 78% recorded 25 years ago. Making up the difference are oilseeds, notably soybean. Over the last decade . . .
Farmers favour nitrogen and can you blame them? Crops respond quickly, growing taller, greener and more lush. How, they think, can extra nitrogen be too much of a good thing? . . .
It makes no difference whether a farmer is measuring out his or her fertilizer by the Coke bottle top, and applying it to an individual plant of sorghum or maize, or whether his or her tractor is fitted with computer controlled application equipment, guided by global positioning satellite. Efficient fertilizer use . . .
Biofertilizers - the natural way?
The nitrogen fixing capacity of legumes is one of nature's gifts to agricultural sustainability but that gift can be enhanced with a little help from man. Biofertilizers, or rhizobia bacteria, which are applied as an inoculant to legume seed before sowing . . .
Positive feedback for positive growth
Awareness, availability, accessibility and affordability - all are closely linked, positively or negatively, when it comes to the use of fertilizer. How can farmers, who have never had the means, nor the inclination . . .
Further information can be found on the following organisation's web sites.
International Fertilizer Industry Association
International Potash Institute
International Atomic Energy Agency
