Beat fertiliser shortages with smart farming techniques

Geopolitical tensions, the COVID-19 pandemic and rising energy prices are stressing fertiliser supplies worldwide. These impacts have fluctuated in intensity but remain prevalent. Household gardeners and commercial agricultural workforces alike must compensate for this inaccessibility. Climate-smart farming with integrated composting systems could be a resilient solution.

The state of fertiliser shortages

Fertiliser has been scarce for several years. Farmers are still awaiting supplies from governments, and nothing has arrived. They must purchase them at higher costs or risk losing their production. Other businesses have accidentally purchased counterfeit fertiliser in desperation — a phenomenon that accentuates the shortage’s pervasiveness.

Urea price increases are another factor in global shortages. Costs for this essential fertiliser feedstock are skyrocketing in Europe ahead of the planting season. The continent has also issued tariffs on Belarus and Russia in response to the continued conflict in Ukraine, though it is a primary supplier for nations like Spain.

The circumstances reveal how international tensions, supply chain issues and the climate crisis continue to make fertiliser scarcer and more expensive. Worsening heat waves and floods put pivotal food-supplying nations in jeopardy. The damaged crop output diminishes the value of what little fertiliser farmers have.

Climate-smart agriculture examples and methods

Mitigating the impacts of fertiliser inaccessibility requires a multipronged approach. Experts must research innovative solutions, and farmers need to revise operations to demand fewer mass-produced nutritional supplements. These are some of the most reliable ways to compensate for fertiliser shortages by integrating composting systems.

Optimised fertiliser management

Composting supplements fertiliser usage, makes supplies last longer and provides additional nutrients to the soil. Agriculturalists and land managers can find the best composting solution for their property. 

Wooden boxes will suffice, but some operations require larger composting systems. Tumbling composters handle greater capacity and have ultraviolet- and animal-protective mechanisms to keep nutrients safe.

Optimising management also requires climate-smart farming methods, like cover cropping, no-till practices and buffer strips. These allow the soil to hold on to the compost and fertiliser and absorb as many nutrients as possible.

Municipal waste as compost

Researchers are uncovering whether repurposing animal manure and municipal solid waste can mitigate the fertiliser crisis. The experiment encouraged a circular economic approach to commercial composting. 

Results verified success while revealing several ways to optimise facilities for a better product. For example, biochar and inoculation can slash production time and reduce costs. These practices also eliminate common composting odours, making it more practical to scale in populated regions. More research is necessary to realise this goal.

Late-season fertilisation

Farmers must pay attention to the weather, note when the forecast calls for rain and delay applying fertiliser based on these windows. Waiting until after the growing season concludes has many advantages, like:

• Better root growth

• Increased ability for crops to store carbohydrates

• Improved resilience against damage

• Stronger chance to outcompete weeds

Indigenous techniques

The fertiliser shortage disproportionately affects many African nations. Experts tested several Indigenous farming practices to see if they could help crop yields during the crisis. These were some of the most effective at boosting soil fertility and moisture.

• Stone bunds: Laying stones along the land’s natural contours to prevent erosion

• Zaï: Directing runoff water and organic materials into small holes and adding manure to make dry land more fertile

• Half-moons: Digging into crusted soils with picks and filling pits with compost or manure

Adjusted cropping practices

The climate crisis has changed growing cycles, and many farms have yet to compensate for these shifts. Farm workers must alter when they plant and harvest. The sequence changes influence when to apply fertiliser and compost.

Adjusting to more eco-friendly cropping will naturally invite pollinators to the region. Crops will flourish with their natural movement patterns, and they could become more present. The planet loses 1.6% of butterfly populations yearly, and they are an essential complement to fertilisation practices.

Climate-smart farming and forecasts

Farms must challenge themselves to implement sensor-based technologies if possible. The data-collection capabilities are crucial for knowing more about how the farm operates. It can automatically reveal growth cycles and nutrient densities in soils. 

These will help decision-making when observing forecasts. Synthesising the information from these resources makes workers more precise when distributing fertiliser and compost. Quality data can prevent farms from losing yields to droughts or other major environmental shifts.

Using green manure

Mineral and chemical fertilisers work differently than green manure or organic options. The former fails in encouraging microbial activity. The latter makes the soil better at holding water and fostering nutrient-rich ecosystems.

The effectiveness and challenges of integrated composting

Researchers determined compost is an essential practice in climate-smart agriculture. These findings prove the effectiveness of integrated composting with smart farming:

• Improved varieties increased the climate resilience of Ethiopian crops by 18.5%

• Crop-livestock integrated farming systems enhanced productivity from 2.8 t ha−1 to 35.6 t ha−1 in India

• No-till practices and other techniques mitigated greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa by a maximum of 1.6 tCO2e per hectare

These outcomes are essential to making minimal fertiliser stores as useful as possible. Adding compost to these plants is a bonus for efficiency and soil health. Refined farming will eventually eliminate the need for chemical fertilisers, making the global shortage less impactful on people’s livelihoods.

Scaling and equipment implementation are some of the most impactful challenges, especially for smallholder farms that lack the resources to engage in large-scale composting. Farms can start small with open-air or self-built systems. Additionally, workers can advocate for government-funded assistance to help nations suffering from shortages expand effective composting infrastructure for farms of all sizes.

Climate-smart agriculture requires composting

Farmers can overcome fertiliser shortages with a combination of integrated composting and reinvention of agricultural practices. Cutting fertiliser dependency with more sustainable operations will make resources last longer, boost fields’ health and output, raise revenue and enhance the land’s resilience.

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