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PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWTH

Fertilizers Europe represents the majority of nitrogen fertilizer producers in Europe and is recognized as the dedicated industry source of information on mineral fertilizers. The association communicates with a wide variety of institutions, legislators, stakeholders and members of the public who seek information on fertilizer technology and topics relating to today’s agricultural, environmental and economic challenges. The www.fertilizerseurope.com website provides information on subjects of relevance to all those interested in fertilizers contribution to global food security.

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PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWTH

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Farmers

have to eat

Farming is a tough business. Mineral fertilizers help make farming financially viable. No wonder 95% of European farmers use mineral fertilizers to boost their financial independence.

In addition to providing us with essential food, feed and energy crops, agriculture has to be economically viable to be sustainable over the long term. Europe’s farmers need to make a sufficient return on what they produce to reward their efforts and enable them to invest in their operations.

Fertilizers are often one of a farmer’s major costs, so their efficiency plays a vital role in ensuring a productive and profitable agricultural sector. On average, every euro invested in mineral fertilizers provides the farmer with a five-fold return.

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Plants

have to eat

Plants don’t grow magically. They need a healthy diet of sunlight, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients. Fertilizers give plants a hand by providing the right mix of major nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and important secondary elements.

Crops need sunlight, air, water and essential nutrients to grow. These are absorbed by the individual plant, either directly through its leaves or from the surrounding soil through its roots. When the crop is harvested, the nutrients the plant has absorbed are harvested with it. Unless these nutrients are replenished, the soil will lose its productive capacity. Natural processes that break down organic matter and crop residues provide about half the soil’s requirement, but the balance needs to be provided by fertilizers.

Mineral fertilizers enable farmers to offer crops a predicable supply of the three primary nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N,P,K) as well as secondary elements calcium, magnesium and sulphur, and other micro-nutrients. The fertilizer provides these in a form that can be readily assimilated by the plant.

Effective fertilization closely matches the nutrients available in the soil to the different requirements of a crop over its growing cycle. This balanced nutrition enables the crop to optimize its use of the nutrients and ensures strong, healthy and productive crop growth.

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People

have to eat

In the past 50 years, the world’s population has doubled. However the amount of available farmland is limited. Fertilizers have helped make the best use of the farmland we have by providing crops with additional nutrients. Today, 48% of the global population are fed thanks to them.

It is widely accepted that global food production needs to increase significantly to keep pace with projected food needs. And, with increasing environmental pressure on bringing more land into agricultural production, the only way this growth can realistically be met is through improved agricultural productivity.

As part of the developed world, and benefitting from exceptionally natural conditions, Europe has the moral obligation to do all it can to help meet global food needs. It has the climate and the farmland to be more than self-sufficient in food production, yet it is a net food importer. An area outside Europe the size of Germany is currently devoted to supplying European markets, land that could support local food needs.

European agricultural policy should encourage its farmers to increase their productivity while maintaining the environmental integrity of the land they farm. This “sustainable intensification” of farming requires more widespread adoption of best farm practice based on new crop science, targeted crop nutrition and modern cropping techniques.

Over the past 40 years, mineral fertilizers have significantly increased crop yields around the world. Without them, it is calculated that agriculture today would require an additional 1,100 million hectares of virgin land. Efficient use of modern fertilizer technology can both ensure that a growing world population has enough to eat and that the environmental impact of farming on our planet is limited.

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Fertilizers

& Land

Higher crop yields mean that the land currently farmed in Europe is sufficient to meet its anticipated food and energy needs.

After the “green revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s, the rate of agricultural growth around the world has slowed. Growth in the yields of wheat, rice and maize have all declined in developing countries since 1980 and today, growth in agricultural productivity in western Europe is almost static. To compound the problem, the world’s agricultural land base is shrinking due to increasing urbanisation, soil erosion and nutrient exhaustion. A large number of regions are also affected by alarming levels of water scarcity.

The sustainability of European agriculture is closely linked to Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). Agricultural experts, legislators and providers of agricultural inputs all have a role to play in promoting it. For its part, the European fertilizer industry has developed advanced farm management strategies to optimise crop yields and to reduce environmental impact.

Nitrogen-use efficiency

Compound nitrogen fertilizers such as AN (ammonium nitrate) have traditionally been favoured by farmers in Europe as being the best suited to its soil and climate. More crops are now produced with less fertilizer than 20 years ago and European farmers’ nitrogen-use efficiency leads the world.

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Fertilizers

& Energy

Although producing fertilizers is energy intensive, they greatly increase the positive energy balance of agriculture. Fertilizers help plants store more energy. Energy that will be used to feed people and animals or used as biofuel.

Europe is the world’s most efficient manufacturer of compound nitrogen fertilizers. The energy efficiency of ammonia production in Europe is close to the technological limit and an increasing number of its nitric acid plants incorporate advanced emission abatement technology.

It takes a significant amount of energy to produce mineral fertilizers, however they offer a positive energy balance. By increasing the yield and the intrinsic energy content of a crop, fertilizers enable them to produce six times more energy than that used to make, distribute and apply the fertilizer. This energy supports human and animal nutrition or the increasing demand for fuel from renewable sources.

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MORE FROM LESSFertilizers & Climate ChangeFertilizers make land use more efficient, helping to reduce environmental emissions from farming.

Farming is highly dependant on climatic conditions. Extreme weather and the increasing variability of seasonality not only affect crop yields and quality, they can also bring new plant and animal diseases.

The expansion of farmland in many parts of the developing world has had a major impact on the environment. Of the 25.5% of global GHG emissions currently attributed to agriculture, 12% are due to changes in land use. Europe’s long tradition of agriculture means that its direct changes in land use are not large. The most relevant emissions resulting from agriculture are nitrous oxide (N²O), from organic sources of nitrogen and fertilizer use, and methane (CH4), primarily from livestock production.

The main focus of future greenhouse gas mitigation is on promoting Good Agricultural Practice, which has increased nitrogen use efficiency by 45% since 1985.

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PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWTH

Fertilizers

+ Farmers

Nitrogen fertilizers are a key ingredient for a sustainable farming sector for the decades to come. They are applied to more than 135 million hectares of farmland in Europe.

Europe’s farmers rely on high quality fertilizers to sustain their operations. European fertilizer producers actively encourage efficient fertilizer use among farmers to control costs.

Furthermore, in Europe the price of gas, the main raw material for nitrogen fertilizers, is currently one of the highest in the world with the market dominated by a small number of key suppliers. In some countries outside the EU-27 dual pricing policies also favour local fertilizer producers, often with less strict emission standards, giving them an unfair competitive advantage.

It also does not help the competitiveness of the European fertilizer industry that from 2013 it will face significant carbon charges under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS III) while operating in a global and very competitive marketplace. Without a strong European fertilizer industry, our farmers will be increasingly dependent on the production and pricing policies of countries outside Europe’s control.

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PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWTHFertilizers

+ the Sun

Fertilizers provide the right mix of nutrients to turn our crops into small biological power plants. The boost provided by fertilizers enables plants to grow more foliage and use the power of the sun to capture more CO² and store more energy.

The power of the sun combines with the nutrients fertilizers provide to enable plants to store more energy. This increases the nutritional value of food and feed products, as well as the efficiency of bio-energy crops.

The development of Europe’s bio-energy sector is an important feature in its low carbon strategy. Bio-energy crops are today grown on approximately 4 million hectares, mostly on previously idle or set-aside land. First generation biofuels (cereals, oil seeds, etc.) are expected to continue to dominate the market over the next decade, with the grain used for bio-ethanol production anticipated to increase three times up to 2025.

However, indirect land-use changes resulting from the expansion of biofuel production can create large increases in greenhouse gas emissions. The inclusion of these in the EC’s biofuels sustainability criteria may limit biofuel growth in the short term.

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Fertilizers

+ Nature

Arable land is scarce and the demand for food increases by the day as the world’s population grows. Increasing the productivity of existing farmland therefore leaves more room for forest and other natural habitats.

As well as releasing quantities of greenhouse gas, increasing land for agriculture by clearing untouched areas and deforestation destroys ecologically valuable natural habitats and biodiversity. It also often has a negative impact on the natural water cycle, resulting in a greater likelihood of flooding or drought.

Fertilizers make land use more effcient by reducing the need to transform forests or other natural environments into farmland. The potential for growth in crop yiels in Europe is such that the existing farmed area can meet our future food needs.

Over the last 25 years, increasing farm efficiency in Europe has allowed its forests to grow over an area of five times the size of Belgium.

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MEMBERS LOUNGE

The Members Lounge has been created for you to have access to all the information possible about Fertilizers Europe activities (see below). For access to Members Lounge or for any other comments, please contact Mark Cryans (mark@fertilizerseurope.com).

The notepad gives you access to information on each committee

and activities inside Fertilizers Europe

The cup of coffee gives you

access to internal and external news.

As well as our social networks.

The pictures gallery will show

you the latest events Fertilizers Europe

took part in or organized.

The calendar shows you all the upcoming

meetings and events at Fertilizers Europe. You will be able to access

documents and register online.

In this section you will discover videos created by Fertilizers Europe

or the latest interesting videos.

With the smartphone, you are able to make videoconferences and participate to our meetings even if you can’t come.

Plant your idea: give us your ideas to improve

your website !

The USB key represents your new

extranet. You will be able to download documents, upload others and also

leave comments.

RootsForGrowth Campaign

The global fertilizer industry has launched a new online campaign called ‘RootsForGrowth’, highlighting the important role which fertilizers play in adressing global food security responsibly, efficiently and sustainably.

On the 15th May 2012, the campaign was launched. At www.rootsforgrowth.com, you will be able to find all material concerning this brand new initiative. On the website, you will find more information on ‘RootsForGrowth’, as well as a video and several infographics.

Don’t hesitate to use the materials and spread it around.

Follow us on Twitter: @RootsForGrowth

For more information, please contact Mark Cryans (mark@fertilizerseurope.com) or Charlotte Prestini (charlotte@fertilizerseurope.com).

Avenue E. Van Nieuwenhuyse 4/6B-1160, Brussels, BelgiumTel: +32 2 675 3550Fax: +32 2 675 3961mark@fertilizerseurope.com

www.fertilizerseurope.comwww.productstewardship.euwww.rootsforgrowth.com

www.twitter.com/FertilizersEuro www.youtube.com/fertilizerseurope

www.facebook.com/fertilizerseuropepage Group Fertilizers Europe