Agricultural Digest
The most important and undersung word in the English language today and maybe for the rest of the year is going to be, fertilizer. Fertilizer, fertilizer, fertilizer… In a meta-analysis conducted in 2022 by the journal Global Food Security, researcher Guopeng Liang of Utah State University concluded that fertilizer, especially nitrogen-based fertilizer, is responsible for a 62-percent increase in cereal yields. He also found that the long-term use of fertilizers contributed to the stability of yields, not just increases; meaning that in order to protect global cereal supplies, long-term use is advisable. As such, we may be in for a rough go in the coming months and years because fertilizer prices are climbing — and are likely to go vertical as the world reacts to the crisis in Iran. As of the last week of March, many of the major fertilizer groups were up in price month to month, with Urea up 34 percent, and UAN-28 and UAN-32 both up 21 percent. A recent survey conducted by the …
