Fertilizer problem and its countermeasures
International food prices began to rise in mid-2020. Due to the new coronavirus infection, companies in each country have stopped working and the supply chain has been squeezed.
Food prices have skyrocketed as truck transport of agricultural products has declined, farmers have discarded milk and agricultural products, and consumers have stockpiled food.
The shortage of agricultural workers due to lockdown movement restrictions also led to a decline in global yields.
There was also the impact of climate change.
Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, was hit by a severe drought in 2021. This year’s wheat yields in China are among the worst ever.
Increased interest in food security during the pandemic has reduced supply to the global market, with some countries accumulating stockpiles of major grains in preparation for future shortages.
In addition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began at the end of February, drastically deteriorated the outlook for food prices.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food prices hit a record high in February and set a new record in March. The combined production of wheat and barley in Russia and Ukraine has reached nearly one-third of the world, and the export of sunflower oil for cooking accounts for two-thirds of the world.
Ukraine is the fourth largest corn exporter in the world. The conflict is likely to hurt Ukraine’s ports and agricultural infrastructure and constrain its agricultural production over the next few years.
At the end of April, Indonesia almost completely banned the export of palm oil in order to secure the domestic supply of cooking oil. The supply of cooking oil, which is used in all foods from cakes to margarine, has been cut off from the world’s largest producers.
During the pandemic, soaring vegetable oil prices led to higher overall food costs.
Grain prices also hit record highs in March as a result of the war in Ukraine constraining shipments of corn and wheat.
Dairy and meat prices also reached record highs in April, according to FAO. This reflects continued growth in global demand for protein sources and the high prices of livestock feed, especially corn and soybeans.
In addition, the outbreak of bird flu in Europe and North America has affected the prices of eggs and chicken.
Looking at inflation in March in the United States, the index for meat, chicken, fish and shellfish, and eggs is up 14% and beef is up 16% compared to a year ago.
It can be said that the above phenomena are due to the decrease in production due to climate change, the rise in prices due to distribution problems, and the rise in prices due to supply and demand.
But over the next few years, the bigger problem with global food production will be the problem of fertilizer supply.
With its vast territory, Russia plays a very important role in the production of the three major fertilizer sources, phosphoric acid, potassium and nitrogen. We also synthesize nitrogen fertilizer raw materials such as ammonia using abundant natural gas and low-cost energy from petroleum.
Russia and Belarus account for more than 30% of the production of potassium ore, and Russia is the fourth largest producer of phosphate rock in the world.
If supply from this world’s largest fertilizer depot is disrupted in terms of both logistics disruptions and economic sanctions, it will have a fatal impact on the world’s agriculture. In large, highly systematic modern agriculture, revenue declines are inevitable without the availability of fertilizers.
In Brazil, an agricultural powerhouse, 85% of fertilizer was imported from overseas in 2021, of which 23% came from Russia. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says it will be difficult to procure fertilizer in the future, and is trying to develop legislation that will enable resource development in indigenous peoples’ reserves in tropical rainforests such as the Amazon. The aim is to collect potassium, which is the main component of fertilizer.
Furthermore, in the EU, it is said that most of the pesticides depend on imports from Russia.
India also has high fertilizer consumption and consumption per unit area, so if chemical fertilizers are difficult to obtain, the impact will be enormous.
Japan, which relies on imports for almost all of its raw materials for chemical fertilizers, is also worried. Japan does not consume much chemical fertilizer, but it consumes 268 kg per hectare, which is the second largest in the world after China’s 389 kg. In particular, ammonium phosphate and potassium chloride are all imported. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, due to the uneven distribution of resources worldwide, the importing countries are also biased to Canada, China, Russia, Belarus and so on.
As mentioned above, it is clear that fertilizers have a significant impact on agricultural production.
However, it is also true that there are soil deterioration, continuous cropping obstacles, and deterioration of agricultural product quality caused by chemical fertilizers. And the harmful effects are spreading all over the world.
We have scientifically verified the disadvantages caused by chemical fertilizers and developed countermeasures, as shown in the verification below.
From a biological point of view, crops cannot absorb and utilize all of the chemical fertilizers we give.
In order to absorb nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potassium, we also need the help of microorganisms. As a result, much fertilizer will remain in the soil.
Artificially, a large amount of chemical fertilizer was given to remove the crop from the soil, leaving degraded soil, plant residues, and fertilizer in the soil. This is the reality of continuous cropping disorders.
So what should I do? How much chemical fertilizer do you need?
We have taken many challenges to this issue.
We humans have mass-produced a single crop. As a result, continuous cropping failure occurred. And in order to avoid it, we have taken many measures such as cultivating different crops.
However, in many cases it was either unsolvable or costly.
We thought that if we pursued the essence of the cause, the problem would be solved, and we did it.
Most agricultural areas lacked organic carbon. Compared to the agricultural products that are harvested, the amount of organic matter that is input is small.
As a result, microbial diversity has also been lost.
By the way, compost includes cow dung compost, chicken manure compost, pig manure compost, rice straw compost, bark compost, etc., but each has its own characteristics and it takes 3 months to 1 year to manufacture. Also, in general, the disadvantages of mass input of compost are mentioned.
We have done various verifications.
Its targets include the classification and characteristics of various microorganisms that ferment and decompose, as well as organic matter and the nutrients contained therein.
For example, cow dung contains certain microorganisms, organic matter and other substances. The characteristics are also suitable for those substances. The same is true for other composts. One microorganism has only one function. Microorganisms can only produce one type of useful substance.
In addition, microbial activity requires useful substances. It is a trace element, often a trace metallic element. It is a so-called useful mineral.
In nature, there are various substances, vegetation, and microorganisms that maintain biodiversity. Among them, microorganisms with unexpected characteristics exist, using unexpected minerals, decomposing many organic substances, storing them as humus in the soil, and giving some to many plants.
We have identified diverse and useful microbial communities from such a natural world and cultivated culture techniques. We have also verified the effectiveness of many minerals. In addition, we have discovered and used useful enzymes.
As a result, it has become possible to completely decompose many organic substances in a short time (24 hours). What we call organic matter includes plant residues, food residues, marine product residues, all livestock excrement, food processing residues, and much more.
And we have succeeded in converting various organic substances into the nutrients that crops need. We were able to use them all to improve the functionality of the soil and improve the production and quality of our crops.
Immediately after the Great Tohoku Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, we conducted a spectacular experiment.
There was a large amount of sea hedro that was carried to paddy fields and fields by the tsunami. The thickness of the hedro was more than 10 cm. We scattered microbial material (MBT55) on top of the hedro. That’s all we did.
And a large amount of hedro turned into a large amount of fertilizer. The result is as shown in the video material, and a good harvest was waiting.
In other words, MBT55 decomposes various organic substances in 24 hours to convert them into high-quality compost and nutrients.
This is also proof that it does not require large amounts of fertilizer.
We can solve the fertilizer problem by making good use of organic matter such as food residues that are excreted in large quantities on a daily basis.
We would like to deploy this biotechnology and MBT Sustainable Cycle Model all over the world to contribute to food problems and control of global warming.
by AgriCloud Project Team
