Because artificial fertilizer has become scarce and extremely expensive due to high energy prices, liquid manure suddenly has its price. Where farmers used to have trouble getting rid of their manure, it is now being snatched out of their hands. Liquid manure has already become a scarce resource.
The spectacular picture made the rounds in the local newspapers: In March, a truck with a trailer overturned in a meadow near Sonnefeld in the Bavarian district of Coburg. Farmers and firefighters rushed to prevent an environmental disaster, the reporters noted. The indignation boiled up online: “Slurry is driven through the area with trucks. Abnormal, a massive error in the system,” commented one user. “Where did this manure come from? Maybe from Holland?” wrote another.
That is not far-fetched, even though in this case the contents of the truck involved in the accident came from a nearby farm. Because manure has never been as valuable as it is today. In the past, farmers who kept animals had to see to it that they somehow got rid of the liquid manure that they could not use on their own fields, but there has now been a lively trade in it. While it used to cost money to let other farmers use excess liquid manure, they now pay for it. The reason for the fight over liquid manure is the high prices for synthetic fertilizers, which have been boosted by the war in Ukraine.
Since then, exorbitantly high fertilizer prices have contributed to the rise in food prices in Germany. In addition, if fertilizer remains scarce and expensive, harvest quantities may also be lower in Europe. “I am very concerned that the prices for inputs, especially for fertilizers, are currently rising sharply in agriculture,” said Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir at the agricultural conference of the G7 countries in May.
The rapid rise in prices began even before the war: According to the CRU, a market research institute from London specializing in the global commodity markets, the prices for nitrogen fertilizers have quadrupled since the beginning of 2020, and for phosphate and potash more than tripled. The reason is the rapid increase in energy prices: natural gas is essential both as an energy source and as a raw material in the production of ammonia, the raw material for most nitrogen fertilizers. “The gas price accounts for around 80 to 90 percent of the production costs for nitrogen fertilizers, so European manufacturers in particular are very badly affected by this,” says Sven Hartmann, head of the plant nutrition department at the Agricultural Industry Association in Frankfurt.
When it comes to fertilizers, Russia plays a dual role on the world market – as a supplier of natural gas as well as nitrogen, phosphate and potash. Nitrogen is essential for plant growth, phosphate and potash are important for root formation and flowering. Trade across the Black Sea — a major route for nitrogen exports — is “completely blocked,” says Shruti Kashyap, CRU’s chief nitrogen analyst. That’s counterintuitive, because: “Nitrogen is like baby food for plants,” says Kashyap.
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The analyst shouldn’t exaggerate: It was only the development of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers before the First World War that made it possible to significantly increase the harvest volumes, which were a prerequisite for the multiplication of the world population. The inventors were two German chemists: Fritz Haber developed the process in 1908, and industrial production on a large scale perfected a few years later by Carl Bosch, who later became IG Farben CEO. Dutch environmental scientist Jan Willem Erisman and several colleagues, in a widely cited paper published in 2008, estimated that thanks to Haber-Bosch processes, one hectare of farmland can now feed more than twice as many people as it did before the First World War.
A deterrent example of what happens when artificial fertilizers are dispensed with is provided by Sri Lanka. The government there banned the use and import of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides at the beginning of last year. She wanted to trim agriculture to 100 percent pesticide-free overnight. The consequences quickly became apparent in the form of crop failures. At the time, around 94 percent of rice farmers and 89 percent of tea and rubber farmers were using synthetic fertilizers. Farmer resistance due to low yields and rising food prices forced the government to allow synthetic fertilizers and pesticides again after just six months.
The sharp increase in the price of fertilizer, which is obviously urgently needed, means that less is being bought, reports Baywa boss Klaus Josef Lutz. The group is one of the largest agricultural traders in Europe. He recorded a seven percent decline in fertilizer sales. If the farmers fertilize less, less will be harvested. “Depending on the weather, this can definitely lead to lower yields or weaker quality,” says a spokeswoman for the Bavarian Farmers’ Association.
As a rule, farmers buy the fertilizer they need for winter crops in the fall. Last year, however, many hesitated at first, according to the farmers’ association. The hope was that the price would fall again – which turned out to be an illusion. The harvest is still secured, but now it is a matter of what will be grown next year and the scarce, expensive fertilizers play a decisive role.
Christian Janze, expert on agricultural policy at the consulting firm Ernst
This is why natural liquid manure is in demand like never before. However, their composition varies depending on the feed that the cattle have been given. Nevertheless, the Bavarian Farmers’ Association, for example, calls on its farmers to “network and work together even better in this area”. According to the feedback from farmers, however, there seems to be hardly any “free liquid manure”.
There is great potential for replacing mineral fertilizers in the sewage treatment plants. The nutrients there are currently hardly used for food production. According to the farmers’ association, in order to change this, it would have to be possible to treat the sewage sludge in such a way that it does not pollute the environment – for example with drug residues. Then that would be another valuable source of phosphorus and other nutrients.
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The article “Fight for liquid manure: High fertilizer prices are driving farmers to desperate measures” comes from WirtschaftsKurier.
