New Zealand and Australia like to think of themselves as food powerhouses.
But right now, a war in the Middle East and China’s fertiliser export restrictions are exposing a dangerous blind spot: their farms depend on imported fertiliser, and they have no plan for when it stops arriving.
As much as fertiliser might seem like a background detail in farming, it isn’t. Fertilisers supply the nutrients – mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – that help crops grow faster and animals feed better.
