For the first time ever, farmers the world over all at the same time are testing the limits of how little chemical fertilizer they can apply without devastating their yields come harvest time. Early predictions are bleak.
In Brazil, the world’s biggest soybean producer, a 20 percent cut in potash use could bring a 14 percent drop in yields, industry consultancy MB Agro said. In Costa Rica, a coffee cooperative representing 1,200 small producers sees output falling as much as 15 percent next year if farmers miss even one-third of normal application. In West Africa, falling fertilizer use would
For the billions who don’t work in agriculture, the global shortage of affordable fertilizer likely reads like a distant problem. In truth, it will leave no household unscathed.
FOR the first time ever, farmers the world over all at the same time are testing the limits of how little chemical fertilizer they can apply without devastating their yields come harvest time. Early predictions are bleak. In Brazil, the world’s biggest soybean producer, a 20-percent cut in potash use could…