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Horizon 2027: a vision for the global fertilizer industry

Agricultural production in the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st can be considered a success in many ways. Despite the unprecedented growth of the global population, coupled with increasing demand per person for food, feed, fibre and bioenergy, agriculture has more than kept pace. This feat is all the more impressive because it has been accomplished on a stable land area with a declining work force. In his 1970 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr. Norman Borlaug said: "If…high-yielding…varieties are the catalysts that have ignited the Green Revolution, then chemical fertilizer is the fuel that has powered its forward thrust"adding that new crop varieties use fertilizers more efficiently than older ones.

Yet many challenges lie ahead. More than one billion people go to bed hungry every night, and as many as three billion suffer from the "hidden hunger" of micronutrient deficiencies. Nutrients not taken up by crops or lost further down the food chain have played a part in unwanted effects on the environment and human health. The long-term cultivation of high-yielding varieties without wide-scale replenishment of micronutrients has, in many places, drained soil pools of trace elements that are vital for both crop and human well-being.

Furthermore, the sudden rise of food prices in 2008 drew the world’s attention to the consequences of years of underinvestment in agricultural productivity. The imperative to invest in knowledge-intensive, site-specific agriculture could not be clearer.

Our vision is that, by 2027, the global fertilizer industry will have contributed significantly to:

• Placing human well-being back at the centre of agricultural policies;
• Achieving food security for all nations;
• Eradicating micronutrient deficiencies;
• Focusing attention on adequate, balanced nutrition as the foundation for a long, healthy and productive life;
• Halting and reversing soil degradation;
• Producing bioenergy;
• Fostering partnerships between farmers, consumers, governments and scientists in pursuit of these aims.

What does IFA aspire to be in 2027?

The International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) in 2027 will be a global organization of individuals and companies from all the disciplines related to plant nutrition and the production of crop nutrients, as well as their trade, distribution and use. IFA will serve as an open platform where knowledge and diverse views can be exchanged. Building on a century of history, it will excel in providing the resources and the environment that enable its members to provide innovative solutions for crop nutrition. Never forgetting that fertilizers are ultimately manufactured to make people's lives better, IFA's members will strive to optimize the benefit that fertilizers provide to society throughout the product life cycle. Membership will be a statement of commitment to high standards of manufacturing performance, ethical business practices and product stewardship.

IFA's mission

The mission of the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) is to act as the voice and the ear of the global fertilizer industry, which provides the crop nutrients that allow farmers everywhere to meet the world's growing food, feed, fibre and bioenergy needs in a sustainable manner. IFA serves its members, policy makers, farmers, the scientific community and the interests of the general public by:

• Actively promoting the efficient and responsible production and use of plant nutrients to maintain and increase agricultural production worldwide in a sustainable manner;
• Contributing to the formation of public policy relevant to crop nutrition and soil fertility management;
• Improving the operating environment of the fertilizer industry in the spirit of free enterprise and fair trade;
• Collecting, compiling and disseminating statistics and other information relevant to the fertilizer industry, and
• Providing a platform for the discussion of all aspects of the production, distribution and consumption of fertilizers, their intermediates and raw materials.

Recognizing that crop nutrition is just one element of sustainable agriculture and rural development, IFA and its members seek to work with other stakeholders throughout the agricultural value chain to identify and implement holistic, integrated ways to meet the world's food, feed, fibre and bioenergy needs.