Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Alternative Fertilizers to Fight Inflation

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 8 2008 (IPS) - The Brazilian government has decided to set aside 4.8 million dollars to develop alternative fertilizers, given the brutal hike in prices of conventional fertilizers. Brazil imports 60 percent of the crop fertilizers consumed in the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, with direct repercussions on agricultural costs.

Mixtures of plants, bio-fertilizers, biological and chemical fixation of nitrogen during planting are some of the techniques that are to be improved with this goal in mind.

The effort is coming late, because “the crisis already erupted, the price of fertilizers jumped 150 percent in a little more than a year,” Jean Marc von der Weid, coordinator of the non-governmental group Assessment and Services for Alternative Agricultural Projects, told Tierramérica.

Agro-ecology is the path to take if Brazil is to have renewable and sustainable productive systems, he added.