Feeding the world, protecting nature

How can food security and environmental protection be reconciled? What is the role of mineral fertilizers? How to weight agronomic performance versus environmental burden? Yara, as a knowledge leader in plant nutrition, responds to questions regarding the best choice of mineral fertilizers.

Farming tomorrow

During the past half-century, the "green revolution" tripled food production while world population grew steeply from 3 to 6 billion people. With world population expected to grow to some 8.5 billion people by 2030, food production will need to increase more by than 50%. Since land suitable for conversion to agriculture is dwindling, optimizing yield from existing agricultural surface is a necessity.

European agriculture is one of the most efficient worldwide. Nevertheless, the European Union has emerged as the world’s largest importer of agricultural commodities. The net imports exceed exports by 65 million tons with an increase of 40% over the last decade.

The agricultural surface outside the European Union required for producing these imports amounts to almost 35 million hectares (approximately the size of Germany!).

Further progress in yield and productivity are required to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Mineral fertilizers are key to an efficient use of arable land. They help to assure food security on a global scale, protect pristine forests and grassland from conversion and thus can contribute to mitigating climate change.