Agriculture, Economics and Nature

Week 1
Agricultural production and prices, and agriculture’s reliance
on natural resources

Segment 9
Resource Usage 3: Nutrients
Winthrop Professor David Pannell
University of Western Australia (Heath 2001) (CC BY)
 AGRICULTURE, ECONOMICS AND
NATURE WEEK 1
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND PRICES, AND AGRICULTURE’S RELIANCE ON
NATURAL RESOURCES

SEGMENT 9
RESOURCE USAGE 3: NUTRIENTS
 Nutrients in Agriculture
• Nutrients essential to agriculture, especially in
regions where soils have low fertility
– Much of Australia
• Nutrients provided in two main ways:
– Fertiliser application
– Crop rotation with legumes
 History of Fertiliser Use
• Fertilisers have a long history in agriculture
– Manure
– Ashes
– Clay
– Vegetable waste
– Guano
(Davey 2009) (CC BY)
(Yara 2014)
 Main fertiliser types
• Different fertilisers provide different (combinations
of) nutrients
Nutrient Fertilisers

N Urea, ammonium nitrate/sulphate, calcium nitrate, monoammonium phosphate (MAP), diammonium

phosphate (DAP), potassium nitrate
P Monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, triple super phosphate (TSP)

K Potassium nitrate, potassium chloride (potash)

Ca Calcium nitrate

Mg Magnesium nitrate

S Ammonium sulphate
Global Fertiliser Use 1961-2002
150.00

130.00
Million Tonnes

110.00

90.00

70.00

50.00

30.00
1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
Source: FAOSTAT
 Crop Rotation
• Legumes fix nitrogen from the atmosphere
– e.g. beans, peas, chick peas, clover,
alfalfa
• In some farming systems, legumes rotated
with cereals
– e.g. corn one year, soybeans the next
• Provides nitrogen to cereal crop
(Rose 2013) (CC BY)
(Thamo 2005 )
 Summary
• Nutrients can be provided to crops through
– Fertilisers
– Crop rotations
• Increasing use of fertilisers globally has been a key
factor in increasing crop production