By Dr. Prem Bindraban, Executive Director, Virtual Fertilizer Research Center
 
There are two billion reasons why we should be focusing on the quality of food we produce, and not simply the quantity. Two billion people globally are suffering from health problems due to inadequate nutrition—a plight known as “hidden hunger.” That’s more than double the number of hungry people in the world. As well as causing a number of preventable diseases, according to the latest report from The Chicago Council, poor nutrition causes countries in Asia and Africa to lose 11 percent of gross national product (GNP) each year.
 
As we search for solutions to tackle this problem, due attention should be paid to the role that fertilizer can play—an often unsung hero that can boost crop health, and subsequently human health. Abundant amounts of food can be produced with traditional fertilizers that contain NPK: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). These nutrients have been applied to crops for decades, and when used efficiently (from the right source, at the right rate, at the right time, and in the right place) can give a farmer a bumper crop to feed his or her family and many other people.
 
Much emphasis is being placed on ensuring that farmers can access traditional fertilizers, and training them in best practice for application, to avoid unwanted impacts on the environment—and rightly so. Yet, balanced fertilizers can also contribute to tackling hidden hunger by introducing up to eleven micronutrients into fertilizers. These nutrients, ranging from calcium and magnesium to iron and zinc are often missing in soils, particularly in the developing world or where farming has exhausted soils and where only NPK fertilizers (if any at all) have been applied. Adding micronutrients (some of which are also known as secondary nutrients) to fertilizers will have multiple benefits.
 
The Multiple Benefits of Micronutrient-Enriched Fertilizers
 
Fertilizers that have been enhanced with micronutrients that are lacking in specific soil areas will not only revive crop yields, but will actually enable plants to better take up NPK. Farmers will therefore see a greater return on their investment in these traditional nutrients. The plants and soils will remain healthier and become more resilient to pests and diseases, further reducing costs for farmers, who will require lower amounts of pesticides.
 
In addition to healthier plants and reduced costs for the farmer, a key benefit of micronutrient-enhanced fertilizers is improved human health—as the crops produced will have a higher micronutrient content that will be passed to humans upon eating the crops. Stunting, wasting, and blindness could all take a hit if these micronutrients were made available to crops.
 
Trials have shown that increasing iron, carotene, and zinc content through plant breeding improves human health. Increased plant nutrient content from balanced fertilizers enriched with micronutrients could plausibly have similar effects. This theory shows great promise and has already been tested in several countries. Selenium deficiency-related health problems detected in cattle and humans in the 1960s in Finland were resolved in the 1980s through obligatory addition of selenium to fertilizers. Similarly, the addition of zinc in Turkey has increased both crop yield and quality, mitigating zinc deficiency-related health problems. So what can be done to make micronutrient-enhanced fertilizers available to farmers?

Making Micronutrient-Enriched Fertilizers Available

There is a straightforward business case for producing fertilizers that contain micronutrients. The nutrients themselves are already serving high value markets, such as horticulture. While these fertilizers are expensive, the nutrient ingredients as such are not. They could, therefore, be produced to serve a wider market of bulk food crops like grains. The question, therefore, is, who will provide them?

Investments should be made in the production of balanced fertilizers. Simply mixing granules containing different nutrients can be done at a local level by agro-dealers, but application in the field could be uneven, giving poor results. The processes of coating existing fertilizers with micronutrients or embedding them into granules will be complex, as would the production of liquids that could be applied to growing crops. Therefore, a centralized produced system would be the most viable option.

It is vital to note that different regions—and even areas within a region—will require different fertilizer compositions. One farmer may require a blend that includes boron, while farmers in the next district require a blend that includes magnesium. The demand in each area is going to have an impact on which fertilizers are produced where. Hence, a limited number of most effective compositions should be identified to allow sufficiently large viable markets for specific regions.

Micronutrient-enhanced fertilizers could provide another route to improving human health. Many governments are already fortifying food items; this could be new approach for not only reviving yields and reducing costs for farmers, but also tackling the hidden hunger that is hampering the development of many countries across the world.

Prem Bindraban, PhD, is the Executive Director of the VFRC. Prior to joining the VFRC, Bindraban was the director of ISRIC World Soil Information at Wageningen University and Research Center (WUR) in the Netherlands since 2009. He has also been a lecturer in Future Planet Studies at the University of Amsterdam since 2009 and leader of international research at Agrosystems Research PRI at WUR since 2008. He served as a professor in crop modeling at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) from 2008 to 2010 and as head of the Natural Resources unit of WUR’s Plant Research International from 2000 to 2008. He also served as a researcher at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) from 1993 to 1996 and at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1991. Bindraban earned a MSc and PhD in Tropical Crop Science from Wageningen University and an MBA from European University.