A great effort and the application of technology and resources are needed for the sustainable development of food.
In this sense, when plants are fertilized, the amount of food that can be harvested increases.
Likewise, it substantially improves the quality of harvested foods, as fertilizers contain the essential nutrients that plants naturally need to grow.
To generate nutritious food for humans, it is necessary to produce by incorporating good agricultural practices, including crop alternation (ie not doing monocultures) and, moreover, returning to the soil the original nutrients it has provided.
In Argentina, in every corner of the country, farmers work producing food and caring for the soil from generation to generation. Thus, the nation’s soil can produce food for our country and for the world, as long as the challenge of maintaining sustainable production is taken up.
For this it is imperative to apply the nutrients that crops need for their growth and development. Furthermore, by producing more food in soils, which today are already used for production, we avoid that other lands that are on the planet fulfilling another function are used for this purpose, such as: biodiversity reserves, national parks, forests, mountains and so on.
The concepts belong to the basic manual of Fertilizar Asociación Civil, an organization made up of fertilizer manufacturers and dedicated to detecting the state of soils and providing nutritional recommendations for their conservation.
“In every food of plant and animal origin that is produced and reaches the consumer’s table, both the work of the producer and the contribution of fertilizer technology are reflected,” said Francisco Llambías, president of the entity.
Francisco Llambías, president of Fertilizar AC.
“Crop mineral nutrition means incorporating nutrients through fertilization,” he added.
Since its inception, Fertilizar AC has become a reference entity in the generation and dissemination of content on fertilization technology; nutrient replenishment; soil conservation; the implementation of good agricultural practices and the care of the high productivity environment.
“One of our main goals is to convey the importance and benefits of crop care to all of society,” he added.
“The idea is to replenish nutrients from our soil to preserve the resource for future generations,” Llambías said.
For his part, Jorge Bassi, vice president of the institution, said that in Fertilizar they face the challenge of producing more and better quality food with awareness.
“But always taking care of the land that our grandparents worked and that, today, future generations lend us. However, there is one alarming fact,” she added.
“In the country, only 35% of the extracted nutrients are returned to the soil; that is to say, due to insufficient fertilization, our soils deteriorate year after year,” said Bassi.
In this context, Fertilize presented More and Better Food, a new way of conveying these concepts in a simple way to the public.
The intention is to focus on sustainable food production; the implementation of good agricultural practices; the rational use of fertilizers and the care and conservation of the soil and the environment.
“We want to make the population aware of the fundamental role that the mineral nutrition of crops plays in the production of quality food that we enjoy on our tables every day”, explained Bassi.
To get more and better food, it is important that crops have been well nourished, as plants need nutrients to become food and, in turn, return what they provide to the soil.
Plants need 17 essential mineral nutrients. Carbon and oxygen get them from the air and hydrogen from the water. The remaining 14 come from the ground.
The lack of any of these nutrients in sufficient quantities can affect plant health, growth and performance and, consequently, human nutrition.
Fertilizers provide these 14 essential nutrients for plants, integrating with those already present in the soil, thus allowing to cover the nutritional needs of crops and significantly increasing the quantity and quality of production.
“Given the current scenario of soil depletion and the need to produce more food for the world’s population, there is one answer: fertilize,” Bassi said.
The context
Soil conservation with good agricultural practices, such as crop fertilization and nutrient substitution, are key to sustainable food production for society.
The demand is due to the demographic growth of the world population, which is recorded exponentially year after year, which requires the production of ever greater and better quality food.
Recently, the United Nations Population Fund reported that the planet contains 8,000 million people; of which, about 10% have the so-called chronic hunger; that is, they lack access to adequate food.
But there are more than 2,000 million, that is another 25%, who have so-called hidden hunger, because they do not have access to food with the minerals and nutrients necessary for their normal growth and development. (Fertilize AC).
Our country, a point of reference
It concludes that Argentina’s dream of being a benchmark in sustainable food production worldwide is possible. We see:
—Of the agro-industrial products that travel around the world, 11% is produced in the country.
—24% of national employment comes from the rural sector.
—If you put all the grain harvested in Argentina into trucks, you could go around the earth twice.
