Rachael Sharp was a farmer effected from a huge increases in the prices of fertilizer. She was not the only one who got effected by inflating rates, many other farmers stopped growing crops due to this factor. Excessive increase in price was a result of many global factors in which current one is Ukraine – Russia conflict.
Effect of Ukraine-Russia conflict on agriculture:
Whole world witnessed a great impact of this war on agriculture sector especially. The main reason behind it was Russia was a biggest and major producer of these fertilizers, after this conflict, many sanctioned were imposed on Russia which erect their economy too. But due to the fact that Russia was exporter of ammonia, natural gas and, other fertilizers to other countries, these countries were not able to import so they faced problems and downturn. In the result of it, US has planned to make the alternative to produce it domestically but the idea is still in progress. This unexpected occurring event makes farmers able to rebuild their strategies as per the emerging demand and changing situation. But they need to take care of natural environment by taking green factor into consideration. It must be a priority that any alternative must not effect environment negatively or effect human health.
Over usage of fertilizer is dangerous:
Excessive usage of any particular ingredient can cause damage similarly it is applicable in this regard. Fertilizer is highly effective for the growth and nutrition of crops but there is a certain percentage which includes 35% of nitrogen & 56% of phosphorus is ideal for growing crops and the remaining 9% will be adjusted through climate conditions. As the world is already dealing with its shortage so it must be used wisely to save overall cost and prevent from any difficulty or failure of agriculture growth. Over usage of fertilizer has created many inconveniences and complications as per the renowned farmers and tech specialists who are keenly aware of agricultural conditions. It’s limitless use is highly dangerous like excessive use of soft drink for human body. The biggest challenge is to reduce its quantity by using latest technology which minimize it’s usage so today’s farmers are struggling to meet this challenge. In early mids of 2021, fertilizer was completely banned in Srilanka due to lack of resources and it’s unnecessary usage. They had another relevant alternative to overcome this deficiency, they took this decision to avoid being dependent and to minimize cost through applying other methods. But this ban not really suits the country well as they bare major economic stress and downturn due to non-availability of natural gases used to crop farming. The ban was released later on because they were not in that position to sustain with any alternative of fertilizer.
In this whole scenario, a great professor and scientist of Srilanka shared his thought provoking and words of wisdom which summarized as when you try to explore or innovate something or when you plan to go out of the box, a structured pattern with complete and accurate research with valid stats record is essential to accomplish your goal. The reason of failure of Srilankan project is lack of all these mentioned factors.
Technology that could replace fertilizer:
Soil spectroscopy is the alternative which can be used as a replacement of fertilizer or to reduce the consumption of fertilizer in many ways. It works as determining the kind of soil through ray of light that can easily evaluate nutrient and Ph. Through this technique, you can precisely determine the consumption of fertilizer & gives efficient results. It is more ideal for under developing countries who are unable to afford high-priced fertilizer through another worth mentioning device which is soil microdosing which helps to reduce its consumption as much as possible. This can be quite cost and energy effective device developed for less usage of fertilizers.
Mr. Sharp shared his views here by explaining the entire situation so well in her words. She meant to say that every medicine is not suitable for every disease similarly you can’t implement any procedure anywhere. It must needs to monitor some other relevant details which can influence and not only the circumstances, but also you need to evaluate the structure of a country where an alternative is being implemented.
Methods and techniques for less consumption of chemical fertilizer:
Here are some of those verified methods and ideas with having technological tools that can enhance farming and require near to no fertilizer.
- With the help of conversion tillage, you can smoothly makes the crops enough fertile while maintaining its quality with having crop rye grass, minimum soil is required. Furthermore it have no side effect on climate which is a great point.
- Crop rotation is another significant technique in which the next growing crop will take its required nutrients and protein from the previous one and the process going on. It will be less costly and efficient for farmers if implemented properly.
- Another effective and beneficial method is making fertilizer from cow manure which is also quite famous. The waste of cows and buffaloes works as a great fertilizer and it helps in growth and steady farming. It is healthier and effective for crops with no side effects. Countries and Kenya and many others are taking advantages by this extremely useful technique by having at least one cow in every farm.
This method of getting fertilizer for effective growth of crops was highly admired by industry experts and professionals. They also suggested that through this method we can make enough fertilizer that will enable every country to become self-sufficient in it but it was not as easier as it seems to fully depend upon this method as it can’t accomplish global needs of agriculture. Moreover, the other options also make it less volatile. Chicken litter was another option but it was not applicable because of it’s higher price and too hard to bare smell. Otherwise this option was worth considering to generate a great organic fertilizer that would be suitable to solve the ongoing problem.
Experiments to make fertilizer:
With the usage of algae and seaweed, scientists made an attempt to make natural fertilizer with different formulas and experiments that will leads towards creating natural fertilizer for crops. This experiment was widely used by people many hundred years ago for this purpose and now, science is working on it to reach the authentic method with the help of advanced technology to achieve desired results. Fish waste can also work as a fertilizer on which experimental process is in progress but finding a right way in which minimum cost reduction provides maximum advantage is worth to adopt as the whole world is going through agriculture downturn which is getting serious with passing time so efficient methods to grow it organically are much needed.
But as per some expert analysis, it is been observed that this deficiency and problematic situation creates many options as scientists and experts after doing major hectic and long progressive research introduced and developed many effective ideas to grow crops with less energy, less cost and less fertilizer which couldn’t get explored without having this phase. So it is beneficial in this way that we find out the advantages we can get through waste and less worthy materiall.