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Like people, soils need balanced nutrition to be able to grow
crops. In a closed-loop system, the plants die and return their nutri-
ents to the soil, enabling the soil to grow more plants.
“In farming, because we’re actually removing parts of the crops,
whether it’s vegetables from gardening or the seeds from grain we
grow in the field, we’re removing the nutrients that make those
components,” said Daryl Tuck, a farmer from Vegreville.
And that’s why farmers often need to add fertilizer back into
the soil to supply the nutrients that plants need. Fertilizers all
come from the earth. There are traditional sources of fertilizer like
manure. Nitrogen fertilizer can either come from the soil or be
produced commercially. Phosphorus occurs naturally in the soil,
and is mined from the soil and processed into a more concentrated
form. Potassium is another nutrient that crops need to grow that
can be applied as a fertilizer. Micronutrients are nutrients that are
not present in the soil in large quantities; plants only use small
amounts of these nutrients, but still need them to function.
“Soil has a limited capacity to supply all of the nutrients that
a crop needs,” said Michelle Nutting, manager of agricultural sus-
tainability with fertilizer producer and retailer Agrium. “The link
between soils and fertilizers is that when soils don’t have enough
of all the elements that are needed to produce a healthy crop,
then farmers are able to diagnose what isn’t there in the right
amounts and add that to the soil in the form of fertilizer.”
Nutrients are the soil’s vitamins. Even if you eat a balanced
diet, you might still be missing some of the essential elements.
You might need extra vitamin D, for example, which can be
added to milk or taken in pill form. Similarly, nutrients like phos-
phorus and nitrogen can be added to the soil. Whenever you eat a
food product like bread made out of wheat, you’re actually eating
nutrients that were stored in the ground.
Applying fertilizer helps farmers get the best production out of
their land and the biggest crop possible. But in order to determine
how much fertilizer they need, farmers need to test their soil.
“I take a sample of the soil from my field to get it analyzed
for its nutrient content,” said Tuck. “This tells me how much
available nutrient is in the soil before I decide how much I need
to fertilize.”
Once he has his soil analysis, Tuck, who farms canola, peas
and wheat on land settled by his great-grandfather, can crunch
the numbers and make some decisions about how to balance the
nutrients in his soil. It’s a delicate decision. Adding more fertiliz-
er than the crop needs isn’t just a waste of money, it’s also a poor
environmental decision because the unused fertilizer can leach
off or seep into a waterway.
“When you have more nutrients in the soil than what the crop
needs to grow, you have extra supply and the environmental
conditions might cause the nutrients to move off the farm or field
if you have heavy rainfall or erosion,” explained Nutting.
But there are also problems if Tuck doesn’t add enough fertilizer.
If the crops don’t have enough nutrients, they might not grow as
well as they could. “In different growing areas, the biggest factor
that influences our fertilizer use is our average or expected rainfall.
Crops require moisture to grow, and the more moisture we have (to
a point), the more our crops will yield, and the more nutrients are
needed to produce that crop and use that moisture,” he said.
Also, different crops need different amounts of fertilizer.
“If I’m growing canola, in addition to the nitrogen, phosphate
and potash fertilizer that I would put, I would also add sulphur
fertilizer because canola uses a lot of it,” said Tuck. “On my farm,
I have some poor-quality land and it’s not capable of producing
a high-yielding crop. On those fields, I use less fertilizer because
I can’t produce a crop and so it gets too costly to produce a crop
where I am applying excessive amounts of fertilizer.”
Farmers live on the land where they grow food, and they need
their soil healthy for environmental and economic reasons. Tuck’s
family has been on the land for 100 years, and by managing his
farmland properly, he’ll ensure that it will be passed on to future
generations.
Responsible fertilizer use is part of making agriculture more
sustainable. Using fertilizer is one way that farmers can make the
most of their land and use it effectively.
Kryzanowski has conducted studies about fertilizer use in
the province and has found Alberta farmers are using fertilizer
responsibly. “In the vast majority of the province, the nutrient
management is very good,” he said.
Added Nutting, “We’re trying to grow the most amount of food
on the least amount of land possible.” Using fertilizer responsibly
allows farmers to leave their land viable for wildlife habitat and
recreational activities. Farmers are also consumers, and they read
the same articles about environmental degradation and have the
same worries as urban dwellers. They want to preserve their land
and the health of the environment.
“You can talk to any farmer in Alberta and ask them where the
most beautiful places are on their farm, and they can show you
where the ducks nest and the deer cut through,” said Nutting.
“There’s a lot of awareness of the environment on the farm and
they really take care of that.”
Photo: Michael Interisano
Farmers often need to apply fertilizer to their soil in order to replace nutrients used up
by the last crop
.
The Food Issue
2016
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