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ISSUES

The Agricultural World’s Addiction to Fertilizer

Global use of fertilizers has more than doubled in the last thirty years. More than 200kg per hectare is used in Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea; 50kg in Australia, 10-20kg in sub-Saharan Africa and central Asia, and an average of 100kg in other countries. This is partly due to the collapse of areas devoted to growing vegetables. During the 2006-2007 season, 164 million tonnes of fertilizer were used, of which 98 million tonnes were for nitrogen, 27 million tonnes for potassium and 39 million tonnes for phosphates. China is the world’s largest mineral fertilizer consumer using 49 million tonnes, followed by India (22 million tonnes), the United States (21 million tonnes), Brazil (9 million tonnes), Indonesia (3.5 million tonnes) and France (3.4 million tonnes). According to the United Nations (UN), since 1960 the number of dead zones in seas and oceans has doubled each decade, particularly because of nutrients such as nitrogen...  

NEWS

19/04/2013

Ammonia: Fertiliser to be handled with care

02/04/2013

China fertiliser leaves tons of harmful waste: report

14/03/2013

After 2012 drought, US farmers adapt for climate change


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DEBATES

From tequila to the 'tree of life', bats are nature's invaluable allies

UNEP

Were you aware that bats are key pollinators in many parts of the world? Pollination is a vital ecosystem service without which...  

  The Nitrogen Fix: Breaking a Costly Addiction

Over the last century, the intensive use of chemical...

  A Big Chance for Small Farmers

The G-8’s $20 billion initiative on smallholder...
FOCUS
Nobel Price of ecology

Designed to recognize grassroots environmental heroes, the Goldman Environmental Prize, founded by Richard and Rhoda Goldman in 1989 In San Francisco, is awarded annually to individuals from the six inhabited continental regions for sustained and significant efforts to...  

VIDEOS

24/10/2012
Feeding the world sustainably, as the global population grows, is one of...
23/12/2009
Soumana Doumbia, geographer, tells us about the difficulties that farmers...

GREEN TIPS

Agroecology

Since the 1980s, the engineer Pierre Rabhi has been developing agroecology in very poor rural areas in...



INDICATORS

Arable land
Degraded soils
Pesticide use

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