Feed the soil to feed the people, the IPI jubilee

Editorial

Feed the soil to feed the people, the IPI jubilee
- Session 1: Policy issues related to food supply and the environment
- Session 2a: Economic and social issues
- Session 2b: Economic constraints
- Session 3a: Plant nutrients for sustainable agriculture
- Session 3b: Imbalance in nutrient supply
- Session 4: Potash in agriculture
- Acquiring and putting knowledge into practice - the role of IPI

News
- The law of the minimum
- Soil fertility in Czech Republic in decline

IPI Publications

Publications from other sources

Other editions of IFC

Session 1: Policy issues related to food supply and the environment
Session 2: Economic and social issues
Session 2: Economic constraints
Session 3: Plant nutrients for sustainable agriculture
Session 3: Imbalance in nutrient supply
Session 4: Potash in agriculture
Acquiring and putting knowledge into practice - the role of IPI

Economic constraints in achieving sustainable crop production

A panel discussion was held on this subject, with panellists from Romania, the Philippines and Argentina, to report on the economic constraints in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. In his report, Michael Dumitru from Bucharest took his home country, Romania, as an example to describe the situation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Agriculture is still the cornerstone of the national economy employing 41% of the total working population and providing about 17% of GNP. By returning agricultural land to former owners, several million farms were created with an average of 2.3 ha per family.

Nutrient removal by crops in relation to potash use in Romania

Agricultural incomes are not proving sufficient to cover the cost of agricultural inputs. For example, fertilizer use dropped from 1.11 Mt in 1990 to currently 0.33 Mt, or the equivalent of 16 kg/ha N, 6 kg/ha P₂O₅ and 1 kg/ha K₂O. These rates do not match the requirement of crops, especially those which require more K such as orchard crops, vineyards, vegetables, potatoes, sugar beet and tobacco. Soil nutrient mining is universal, a fact well illustrated by the graph from data compiled by IPI. With the change to subsistence farming with cereals as the dominant crop, Romanian agriculture has even lost its domestic market, and food imports have increased dramatically.

Mrs Marites Tiongco from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) focused on the economics of potash use in Asian rice systems. It is a fact that there is widespread mining of soil K in intensive rice-growing areas of Asia. None of the important Asian rice growing countries have their own potash resources. As a consequence, half of the top ten importers of potash on the world market are from Asia. Consumption of potash for all crops in Asia has increased steadily from about 0.4 kg/ha K₂O in 1965 to currently 13 kg/ha K₂O. Potash use on rice varies from country to country but is substantially higher, per hectare, in East Asia than in South East and South Asia. This shows that farmers are aware of the importance of balanced fertilization with potash. It is also interesting to note that although demand has increased over time, prices for muriate of potash, MOP, on the world market, in inflation-adjusted terms, are about 20% lower today compared to 40 years ago. Currently, potash fertilizer accounts for a relatively small share (4-12%) of gross returns and production costs. This is not because of widespread subsidies on K, but because of the greater importance of other inputs such as labour and N fertilizers.

Ricardo Melgar from Argentina, explained that Latin America still has about 50 Mha of productive land that is so far undeveloped but nevertheless suitable for enlarging its grain production. Brazil has nearly 50 Mha in the Cerrado Region. In North-East Argentina, 2 Mha went into grain production during the last decade, but this still occupies only 20% of fertile arable land. However, there are limitations in the infrastructure and capital available to develop this land.

Latin America is primarily a commodity producer for the world market. However, world commodity prices show high variability in the short term and, overall, a decline. Farmers must try and choose products that have the least tendency to decline in value or may even show a positive trend. Competition inevitably raises the need for higher quality, better response to consumer preferences and services such as origin and process certification.