Fertiliser prices are still rising. But what does that actually mean for farming?

Recent BBC coverage, featuring John Fuller, highlights a familiar concern. Fertiliser prices are moving again, driven by global instability, and there are warnings this could feed directly into food inflation.

That’s not a new story, but it is an important one.

Fertiliser sits right at the start of the food chain, so when prices rise, it affects everything. The article makes that point clearly. Without nitrogen, crop production would fall, and that has obvious consequences.

But what the piece really highlights, perhaps without intending to, is how exposed the system has become.

This isn’t just a supply issue.

When fertiliser prices double because of events thousands of miles away, it tells you something quite important.

It tells you that crop production is heavily reliant on a supply chain that sits entirely outside the farm gate.

That’s the real risk.

Because while fertiliser is essential, it is not the only source of nitrogen in the system.

Most soils already contain large reserves of nitrogen, built up over years through organic matter, crop residues and biological activity. The question is not whether nitrogen exists, but how effectively it is being accessed and used by the crop.

That’s where the conversation often stops short.

The focus is shifting, whether we like it or not.

When input costs are stable, it is easy to build systems around applied nitrogen.

When they are volatile, attention shifts very quickly back to efficiency.

Farmers start asking slightly different questions:

How much nitrogen is the soil already supplying?

How much of what I apply is actually being used?

Where are the losses happening?

Those are practical questions, not theoretical ones.

And they tend to lead in the same direction.

For over 25 years, we’ve worked with growers looking at exactly that point, not how to remove fertiliser, but how to reduce reliance on it by improving how the system functions.

When biological activity around the root is working well, and nutrient cycling is functioning properly, the crop becomes less dependent on what is applied and more able to draw from what already exists within the soil.

That doesn’t eliminate the need for fertiliser.

But it does change the balance.

Why this matters now

The BBC article talks about inflation risk and supply pressure.

Those are real.

But the farms that are least exposed to that risk are not necessarily the ones using the most fertiliser.

They are the ones using it most efficiently.

Because efficiency reduces:

• Cost exposure

• Supply risk

• Reliance on external inputs

And that matters far more in a volatile world than it does in a stable one.

Final thought

Fertiliser will remain a key part of modern farming.

But if global events can double its price overnight, then it makes sense to ask a simple question.

Not just how we secure supply.

But how we reduce our dependence on it in the first place.

Steve Holloway

Technical Manager.