On food

The world population, 6.2 billion in 2000, is expected to grow to 9.2 billion by 2030. Economic growth and higher standards of living have resulted in higher protein intake in countries such as China, with more meat in the diet and a resulting higher consumption of grain as feed.

Currently about 10 percent of the Earth's land is cultivated, and according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), only minimal expansion is possible. We must conserve forests and other natural ecosystems, to do this we need to grow more food where we grow it today, aware the land area may decline due to desertification and urban development.

Limited land resource availability for agriculture.

This issue is covered comprehensively in Agriculture, Fertilizers and the Environment written by a team of Yara researchers with contributions from recognised scientists from all over the world. We produced this book - first written in 1990 and restricted to European conditions, and updated and published as a second edition from a global perspective in 1999 – with the purpose of providing a balanced scientific review of the environmental and sustainability issues relating to fertilizer use, and how its environmental impact can be minimised.

The role of mineral fertilizer.

In the first thirty years of this century, average crop yields will have to increase by at least 50 percent and perhaps substantially more. The only way this can be achieved is through increasing supplies of crop nutrients and the only practical way to do this is through mineral fertilizer use. Fertilizers are extremely effective in promoting crop yields and can improve the nutritional value of food. Protein content in many crops is related to the supply of nitrogen and essential trace elements like selenium can be added to mineral fertilizers.

 Yara is keenly aware of the contribution fertilizers can make to food quality as well as quantity, and provide a range of products and supporting advisory services that help ensure a crops nutrient needs are fully met while the risk of waste is minimised.

Yara is a key player in the development of sustainable food production.

Agriculture, Fertilizers and the Environment. M Laegrid, O C Bockman and O Kaarstad. CABI Publishing, 1999, 294pp, ISBN 0-85199-358-3.