Fertilizer industry players were out in force last week at TFI’s World Conference, where attendance was reported at 734 as of late Sept. 18, appearing to be up about 13 percent from prior year levels (GM Sept. 18, 2006, p. 1). Sources said this was one of the best attended TFI World meetings in recent years.
Keynote speakers addressed attendees on two major topics, food and fuel, with Jeffrey Sachs, Director with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, speaking on “the end of poverty – economic possibilities for our time.” Dr. Elisio Contini, Director for the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp.’s Office of International Affairs of Embrapa, detailed Brazil’s history and success at using agriculture to create fuel, i.e., biofuels – ethanol and biodiesel.
Dr. Contini noted the implications for the fertilizer industry from further crop-to-fuel development, including demand increase with potential price increases; fertilizer for use in new crops; supply to new regions such as Africa; new agricultural and industrial technology, such as nitrogen fixing bacteria; and the speed of the process. As for the latter, the quick pace of new ethanol plants being built in the U.S. is an example.
Dr. Contini gave estimates of the fertilizer demand that would be necessary to replace 10 percent of gas or oil consumption. In the case of sugarcane for ethanol production, some 20 million hectares of additional crops would need to be grown, with 11 million mt of fertilizer used to replace 10 percent of world gasoline. For soybeans to produce biodiesel, he estimated some 200 million hectares of additional soybeans would need to be produced, with 65 million mt more tons of fertilizer consumed, to replace some 10 percent of oil.