The name ‘Yara’ represents a good harvest and a good year
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Energy, ammonia and natural minerals are the basis for mineral fertilizer. Crops can be fed with mineral or organic fertilizer, but in both cases, the crop will utilize the same inorganic molecules. The production process simply takes nitrogen from the air to produce ammonia as the basis for all nitrogen fertilizers. Phosphate and potash are mined and transformed into products that can be taken up by plants.
In addition to single-nutrient fertilizer products, there are also multi-nutrient products, which can be categorized as follows:
Complex fertilizers – fertilizers containing at least two of the primary nutrients, obtained by chemical reaction. The granules that result contain a declared ratio of nutrients. MAP, DAP and nitrophosphate products are examples of this type of product.
Compound fertilizers – fertilizer containing at least two of the primary nutrients, obtained by chemical reaction, blending or a combination of both. The granules produced may contain different nutrients in varying ratios.
Blended fertilizers or bulk blends – obtained by the dry mixing of several materials. No chemical reaction is involved. Blends should, ideally, involve the mixing of granules of consistent size, weight and surface treatment to avoid segregation, which is undesirable because it reduces the agronomic efficiency of the product.
Multi-nutrient fertilizers
Multi-nutrient fertilizers often are referred to using their primary nutrient components (e.g., NPK, NP, etc.).
In purely agronomic terms, complex fertilizers offer the most effective way of achieving balanced nutrition, since they contain a declared grade or formula of primary nutrients in each granule and permit an even application due to their stable granule quality and consistent granule size.
Complex fertilizers tend to be more expensive and historically have offered better margins than mixtures or blends, but contribute to greater crop yield and quality, especially in the case of the high value-added fruit and vegetable segments (referred to in the industry as “cash crops,” such as fruits and vegetables, as opposed to so-called food crops, like grain), where growers are willing to pay for these benefits.
Bulk blends are produced by a simple process of dry-mixing of already-manufactured products. As a result, the capital investment and operating costs associated with bulk blending are small compared to those of manufacturing ammonia and the finished mineral fertilizer products. Similarly, sales margins for bulk-blended products are normally much lower than those for chemically manufactured fertilizer products.
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