Agricultural Applications
With the closing of the straight of Hormuz to fertilizer exports, and climate change, dramatic food shortages are to be expected.
About a third of the world’s supply of fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz. (Although other sources say that it is a third of shipped fertilizer, 13% of total fertilzer). Now China has banned exports of fertilizer, particulalry hurting the Phillipines. Saudi Arabia and other countries are hoarding it. Russia, which controls up to 40% of the global trade in ammonium nitrate, said on Tuesday it will stop exports of the fertilizer for one month until April 21 to ensure sufficient supply during the spring planting season.
It gets worse. Anything going wrong will interrupt food production.
- US Farmers are going broke.
- Some farmers are not planting or planting less.
- Irrigation often requires energy for pumping water.
- Tractors require fuel to run.
- Transporting and refrigeration require energy.
- Much of the world's sulfer passes through the straigh of Hormuz, used to produce many things, some used in farming.
- In the US farmers are planting beans instead of corn, it takes less fertilizer but more water, and a returning El Nino is expected to bring the hottest driest summer on record.
- Climate change continues to get worse, and already food prices were rising.
- Drought Shakes U.S. Wheat Outlook, USDA Predicts Smallest Crop in 54 Years
So my attention is turning to supporting agriculture.