Meeting the Growing Demand: The Role of Fertilizers in Feeding a Growing Population

With the population increasing at a rate of 1.1% per year, more pressure is being placed on the agriculture community to ensure that there is enough food being produced to feed the growing number of people. With current growth rates, by 2050 we will require 50% more food to feed everybody on the planet. This is compounded by more land being taken up with cities growing larger to house the expanding populations. Utilizing fertilizer to increase crop yields is a very important tool being utilized to alleviate these problems. Applying the correct amount of fertilizer can increase yields by up to 50%, ensuring that farmers are able to meet the growing demand requirements.
 
Two of the world’s largest fertilizer components are Nitrogen and Potash, and both are produced in abundance locally. In the case of Nitrogen, this is most commonly applied in pellet form as Urea, which is produced from Ammonia.

Animal Manure has long been used as a fertilizer, as when it degrades, nitrogen is released into the soil, providing nutrients for crop production. However, in the early 1900s, it was realized that the population was growing too fast to grow enough food only utilizing manure as a fertilizer. Therefore, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a process (Haber-Bosch Process) to create ammonia, which was the first synthetic fertilizer utilized to increase crop production.

In Western Canada, not only are we blessed with an abundance of agricultural land used for crop production, but we also have several facilities producing the nutrients required to ensure these crops produce the most product that they can. Western Canada produces more than 4 million tonnes per year of Ammonia that is utilized worldwide as fertilizer, most commonly as Urea. There has been an increase in fertilizer consumption in Canada of almost 25% over the last ten years. So, it is comforting to know that we produce enough fertilizer to self-sustain in Canada at current levels of consumption.

Fertilizer is essential for feeding our growing population, but we must ensure it’s done in an environmentally safe way. By leveraging innovative technologies like sensors, analyzers, and artificial intelligence, we can maximize production while minimizing environmental impact. Spartan Controls’ efforts to reduce NOx emissions contribute to a safer, more sustainable environment for increased fertilizer production. If you’d like more information, please reach out to your local Spartan representative.

Living in western Canada, please remember to share the road with farm equipment as that time of year approaches. Thank you to our agriculture community and the fertilizer producers that assist in providing us with the valuable wheat and grains we all require in our everyday lives.

Agrichem - Fertilizers