Rising fertilizers cause more hunger worldwide than Russia's grain blockade

Rising fertilizers caused by the gas price increase in Ukraine lead to more hunger in the world than Russia's grain blockade and could lead to an additional million deaths through malnutrition, according to new research results.

fertilizer -based fertilizer that is made from natural gas have risen in the price, since Russia has restricted gas exports and the supply costs have increased.

The rising costs for fertilizers will affect global nutritional uncertainty than the effects of the blockade of the Kremlin on Ukrainian grain exports, researchers from the University of Edinburgh.

said

up to 100 million people will remain malnourished when the high fertilizer prices stop, with the greatest stress in Subsahara Africa, North Africa and the Middle East.

The high prices will also heat environmental damage such as deforestation, loss of habitats and dwindling biodiversity, since countries that cannot afford the fertilizer required for high yields will be forced to expand the plow areas.

Dr. Peter Alexander from the University of the School of Geosciences said: “This could be the end of an era of cheap food.

"While almost everyone will feel the effects on their weekly shopping, it will meet the poorest people in society, who may already have difficulties to afford enough healthy foods."

While the effects of the Bladimir Putin black -sea blocking on grain exports to many developing countries, many alerted many, the researchers found that fertilizer prices would have a greater influence on nutritional safety.

The researchers modeled the combined effects of export restrictions, increased energy costs and fertilizer prices in mid -2022, which were three times as high as at the beginning of the previous year. The food costs could increase by 81 percent in 2023 compared to 2021.

But the export restrictions "only make a small fraction of the simulated price increases," said the team in an article published in the Nature Food magazine.

A double blow on the food prices

A stop of exports from Russia and Ukraine would increase the food costs by 2.6 percent in 2023, while tips would increase 74 percent for energy and fertilizer prices.

Russia is even an important exporter of fertilizers. These exports were not sanctioned by the West, although Moscow says that plans that are aimed at the banking sector have made it difficult to sell.

However, it is the cost of natural gas that have affected the global fertilizer costs. It is estimated that natural gas is around 60 to 80 percent of production costs for fertilizers in Europe.

The rising costs have made a double blow to the food prices in developing countries. Fertilization costs are fertilized to consumers or if farmers use fewer fertilizers, the yields and prices decrease when harvesting.

dr. Alexander said that the cereal agreement made it possible for Ukraine last year to resume exports.

"But the immediacy of these problems seems to have distracted the effects of the effects of fertilizer prices.

"While the fertilizer prices go back from the highest levels at the beginning of this year, they remain high, and this could also affect a persistently high inflation of food prices in 2023."

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