The following article is by Jan Pieter de Jong of Soil Craft NZ-Agronomy Consultancy.
For those among us that are baby boomers, we have been here before. In 1973, when seven Arab nations attacked the state of Israel, and took them by surprise, with the objective to wipe the Jewish state off the face of the earth. An oil crisis ensued which affected global supply from 1973 and into 1974. Governments introduced an essential services system, similar to the Covid measures, and a car-free Sunday where no-one could drive, except essential services like the fire department, police and the medical sector. My mates and I went roller skating or biking on the vast open and completely empty motor ways; it was a truly weird, spectacular, and surreal reality.
Our oil dependence was a very bleak reminder on how we rely on this sticky stuff. And here we are again. Have we learned? Have we mitigated this risk? Or found alternative sources of energy? I'll leave you to ponder and answer that. And then there's the public call to the government to relief the pain. I hope our government will be wise as we are still digging ourselves out of that Covid hole.
But how is this war affecting the fertiliser prices? I have selected an interesting piece of writing written by Anneliese Abbott. She has a B.S. in Agronomy from Ohio State and an M.S. in Agroecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She runs a small CSA in Michigan, is the author of "Malabar Farm", and is currently doing research on the history of organic farming in the United States. After you have read the article, we'll have a chat on how this war will impact our agriculture and how we could mitigate its impact.
War in Iran Drives Up Fertilizer Prices and Chemical Company Profits
By Anneliese Abbott.
As the ground thaws and the weather warms up, farmers are getting ready to plant their fields for the 2026 season. For most conventional farmers—especially those planting corn—that involves applying fertilizer. But can they afford it?
Fertilizer prices have been high since March 3, when Iran closed the Straits of Hormuz in response to US missile strikes. This blocks the only way for ships to get from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, the Indian Ocean, and the rest of the world. In addition to being a crucial oil and gas shipping route, 49 percent of global urea exports and 30 percent of ammonia exports originate in the Persian Gulf and are shipped out via the Straits of Hormuz. In addition, the world's largest urea plant, located in Qatar, had to temporarily shut down because of damage to its natural gas supply.
Countries like India, which relies heavily on natural gas from the Persian Gulf to run its nitrogen-fixing factories, are facing actual supply shortages because of the blockade. Because the United States only imports 25 percent of its total fertilizer and 18 percent of its nitrogen, American farmers aren't facing any shortages, only higher prices.
Because fertilizer is traded on a global market, prices for various fertilizers are 9 to 31 percent higher than they were in March 2025. Prices were higher for most fertilizers in the late summer and early fall of 2025, so this isn't an unprecedented price jump.
Many farmers and agricultural lobbying groups believe that fertilizer companies are using the war as an excuse to raise prices. On March 13, an Iowa farmer filed a class action lawsuit against the major fertilizer companies, accusing them of "conspiracies to fix, raise, maintain, and/or stabilize prices for nitrogen fertilizer."
In addition to the lawsuit, agricultural lobbying groups are asking the federal government to give farmers financial assistance, claiming that more subsidies are essential "to ensure a strong, reliable and affordable domestic food supply." But Angela Huffman from Farm Action points out that every time the USDA increases farmer payments, input companies increase prices, and the farmers still struggle to make ends meet. So they ask for more money, and the cycle continues.
Kathryn Anderson of the Union of Concerned Scientists explains that farmers can drastically reduce their need for purchased fertilizer by adopting eco-agriculture practices like more diverse crop rotations, cover crops, and re-integrating livestock into cropping systems. Simply adding small grains and forage legumes to a corn-soybean rotation can reduce nitrogen fertilizer requirements by 91 percent—while increasing corn yields by 4 percent and soybean yields by 16 percent.
Transitioning to rotations that require little or no purchased fertilizer will help insulate farmers from volatile input prices, while also improving soil health. And there won't be much opportunity for chemical companies to siphon profits away from farmers—which is probably why they never mention the possibility of reducing fertilizer use.
My dad used to say that war is good for business which I thought was an awful statement, but he was right. Commodity traders are on high alert as soon as conflict brakes out as there is money to be made. The war in Ukraine demonstrated that overtly. There was enough grain but it couldn't be delivered and what was "on-site" sold at astronomical prices, a clear matter of supply and demand, or capitalism at its "finest" you could argue.
This war is no different. So, what about our fertiliser, our urea? It is likely that fertiliser prices will go up here in New Zealand too. And how to secure our food supply? Surely that must be a cause worth fighting for? Or maybe, just maybe, we might want to rethink our farming practice?
The Perfect Blueprint of Nature is teaching us that:
- Our atmosphere consists of 78% Nitrogen. That is 74000 ton of Nitrogen per hectare hovering over us!!
- Nitrogen fixing bacteria live in the phyllo sphere.
- Nitrogen fixing organisms live in the soil.
- Legumes, and some other plants, fix Nitrogen, providing there is adequate Molybdenum and Cobalt.
- Lighting releases Nitrogen as it breaks its chemical bond.
- Organic fertilisers contain Nitrogen; good ol' compost, seaweed, vermicast, etc.
So why do we need Nitrogen from Qatar while there is this staggering abundance all around us practically screaming and saying, "I'm(Nitrogen) already here, readily available… come and get me"!!
Just like oil, conventional agriculture relies on Urea or Calcium Ammonium Nitrate(CAN). Can we change that? Sure, we can, as Anneliese has pointed out. But as the outstanding leader in organic farming Gary Zimmer warns, we have to be careful, "You have to earn the right to reduce your Nitrogen inputs!".
Soil Craft NZ can assist you in this journey of harvesting Nitrogen in your orchard or farm. The 6 teaching points give us the starting point on how to implement new and fresh thinking. We work with you to make sure that the profits return to you. After all, it is you who takes the risk in growing and producing food with nutrient integrity and density.
For more information:
Soil Craft NZ-Agronomy Consultancy
Jan Pieter de Jong
Email: [email protected]
