May 2022 - 8

Fertilizer, input costs focus of UF/IFAS seminar
By Doug Ohlemeier
Assistant Editor
Agriculture's tenuous relationship
with global events, increasing input
costs and competition posed by other
growing regions were brought into
focus at this year's Florida Agricultural
Policy Outlook Conference.
The March 21 event at the University
of Florida Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences' (UF/IFAS)
Mid-Florida Research and Education
Center in Apopka, Florida, featured
economists and researchers discussing
how policy issues could affect
production.
A big issue is fertilizer costs.
John Walt Boatright, director of
national affairs and interim director of
state legislative affairs for the Florida
Farm Bureau Federation, said fertilizer
costs - along with overall rising input
costs caused by inflation - are the
biggest issues affecting growers. He
discussed a congressional effort to
encourage the Biden administration to
implement certain types of waivers on
tariffs and other costs associated with
importing fertilizers.
" High fertilizer prices are massive
concerns for farmers, " said Boatright.
" Nitrogen fertilizers are way up
because of problems of gas suppliers,
especially in Europe. " Nitrogen prices
were so high that, at one point, many
EU plants shut down, which undercut
world nitrogen fertilizer supplies and
capacities. Additionally, Russia used
to require American help to feed itself,
but is now a breadbasket.
" Things have gone very well in
agriculture for the last four years in
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terms of the ability to grow and feed
the world, with so much stability
and so much growth, " Boatright
added. " This year, in particular, even
more than the last two years, 2022
will probably need an asterisk as a
reminder of how fragile things are.
There's the massive disruption of
the world ag system. This Ukrainian
conflict is an indication of how much
we are on a razor's edge in regard to
the world's food security. "
J. Scott Angle, UF/IFAS vice
president for agriculture and natural
resources, reported a favorable 2022
budget and several initiatives should
allow the department to focus more on
policy and nutrient issues.
Angle discussed the $8.8 million
allocated for research on nutrient
application rates, particularly
fertilizer recommendations, on sweet
corn, green beans, tomatoes and
potatoes with the intention of adding
other crops.
The research is to be utilized to
inform regulators at the Florida
Department of Agricultural and
Consumer Services regulators to
update Best Management Practices
and be implemented in agency user
manuals, allowing growers to be more
compliant.
" This is an area that absolutely needs
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more policy input, " said Angle. " Policy
is what makes good science available.
Policy is what drives many of the
solutions, particularly in Florida. "
Other funding for research
projects includes $2.2 million for an
ecosystem services project designed
to develop an artificial intelligence
tool to identify, validate and quantify
ecosystem services delivered by Florida
agricultural and natural systems.
$1.1 million is slated to fund an
undergraduate geomatics program
studying geospatial analysis that
includes surveying and mapping.
Zhengfei Guan, of UF/IFAS' Food
" Even more than the
last two years, 2022 will
probably need an asterisk
as a reminder of how
fragile things are. There's
the massive disruption of
the world ag system "
− John Walt Boatright,
Florida Farm Bureau Federation
and Resource Economics Department
at the Gulf Coast Research and
Education Center in Balm, Florida,
displayed data showing how Mexico's
rise in produce exports to the U.S.
affected Florida growers. He noted
how, across the board, commodities
that once saw higher U.S. production
than Mexican imports have now
reversed.
Florida's strawberry production, for
example, was once 220 million pounds
in total production capacity, three
times higher than imports. Like with
blueberries, tomatoes, peppers and
squash, that situation is now reversed,
with Mexican imports being the
dominant supplier for U.S markets.
" Mexico is really the dominant
player, with Mexican production
almost a one-direction trade, " he said.
" The U.S. fruit and vegetable industry
is trending down. We need to be aware
of the structural changes experienced
by the fruit and vegetable industries,
especially in Florida.
" Because fruits and vegetables are
labor intensive, we need to invest
more in public research to get new
technology. Mechanization and
automation are the future of the
industry. At the end of the day, we
have to be competitive in producer
costs. Then, we will have a viable and
sustainable industry. " VGN
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May 2022

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