Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Changes in fertiliser costs, in common with all elements of intermediate consumption for farmers, are principally a function of market forces, in this instance primarily at international level. The main reason for the sharp increase in fertiliser prices this year is the fact that world demand far outstrips supply. Increased world demand is such that fertiliser plants do not have the productive capacity necessary to respond. Increasing use of fertiliser is a prerequisite for improving the demand-supply balance of food worldwide and also for increasing crop production for energy and biofuel. The most significant component of increased demand for fertiliser for food production is coming from expanding economies such as India and China, while increased demand from South America and Canada is for biofuel production. Russia and America, previously exporters of fertiliser, are retaining their own production this year.

Other factors leading to increased costs for fertiliser worldwide are the increasing price of oil, which is a major contributor to the overall cost of fertiliser production, and increased shipping costs worldwide due to high economic global activity in areas such as China and India, which is leading to a deficit in shipping capacity. Within the EU, the decision to return former set-aside land to crop production has also contributed to increasing demand for fertiliser.

Since the closure of IFI in 2002, Ireland has had no indigenous inorganic fertiliser production and as such is totally dependent on imports. Furthermore, Ireland's location on the fringe of Europe implies increased shipping costs and a lack of economies of scale in the area of shipping. One option for Irish farmers is to use imported inorganic fertiliser for crop production as efficiently as possible, having regard to good agricultural and environmental practices at all times. Organic fertilisers produced on farms, such as slurry and farmyard manure, have now become even more valuable as sources of nutrients for crop growth and should be used as efficiently as possible.

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