Feeding Plants While Starving the Soil: Rethinking Fertiliser Logic in the Age of Collapse

Dr. Suzie Haryanti Husain 

Global Soil Health Expert (SHE™) | Creator of Soil Intelligence Framework | Systems Strategist at PRESICA TECH | Leading Regenerative Agriculture in the Tropics

May 28, 2025

By Dr. Suzie | Soil Health Expert (SHE™)

Introduction: The Fertiliser Paradox

“Fertilisers support 50% of global food production. Yet 33% of the world’s soils are degraded — and by 2050, that number could reach 90%.”

This paradox defines the modern agricultural dilemma. For decades, the emphasis has been on feeding crops with chemical precision, while the health of the soil beneath them silently erodes. As we navigate food insecurity, rising emissions, and collapsing ecosystems, it’s time to challenge a dangerous orthodoxy: that yield alone is the measure of success.

If we are to feed a growing population, mitigate climate change, and restore our biosphere, we must urgently evolve fertiliser logic from productivity-first to ecosystem-first. And that begins with the soil.

The Silent Crisis Beneath Our Feet

According to The Future of Fertiliser report (Anglo American & Deloitte, 2024), one-third of global soils are already moderately to highly degraded. FAO data warns that over 90% of Earth’s topsoil could be at risk by 2050 if trends continue. The consequences are catastrophic:

• Over 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies
• Fruits and vegetables have lost 25–50% of their nutrient density since 1950 (Davis et al., 2004)
• Hidden hunger contributes to US$3 trillion in annual global healthcare costs (WHO, 2020)

These outcomes are not random. They are the direct result of decades of unbalanced fertiliser regimes that prioritise NPK and ignore the biological, structural, and micronutrient dimensions of soil health.

Fertiliser and Emissions: The Dirty Secret

The same fertilisers that fuel our crops are accelerating planetary instability. Key findings include:

• Fertiliser production and use contribute 2–7% of global greenhouse gas emissions — more than aviation and shipping combined.
• Nitrogen fertilisers leak nitrous oxide (N₂O), a gas 298 times more potent than CO₂.
• Less than 50% of applied nitrogen is absorbed by crops; the rest leaches into water bodies or enters the atmosphere (IFA, 2022).

This is not just inefficient — it’s existentially reckless. We are, quite literally, fertilising climate change.

Only half of what we apply becomes food — the rest becomes pollution

The Soil Health Disconnect: Fertiliser’s Blind Spot

Most fertiliser models address only chemical fertility. But soil health is multidimensional:

• Chemical: Nutrient availability (NPK, micronutrients)
• Physical: Soil structure, porosity, water-holding capacity
• Biological: Microbial life, organic matter, root interactions

Yet fertiliser strategies continue to treat soil as inert. There is no widespread integration of microbial diagnostics, no benchmarks for carbon restoration, and no incentives tied to soil vitality.

This reductionism has pushed modern agriculture to the brink.

Sustainable Fertiliser? Still a Mirage Without Metrics

The Future of Fertiliser report highlights a critical gap: there is no globally accepted definition of what constitutes a “sustainable fertiliser.” Claims abound — from green ammonia to polyhalite — but few are transparently measured on:

• Lifecycle emissions
• Impact on soil microbiome
• Nutrient density outcomes in food
• Biodiversity or water cycle restoration

In short, we are labelling inputs as “sustainable” without verifying their outcomes.

90% of fertiliser regimes only target 1/3 of soil health

The Shift We Need: From Yield to Regeneration

It is time to retire the yield-only success metric. Fertiliser must:

• Regenerate degraded soils
• Improve nutrient uptake efficiency
• Restore carbon and microbial cycles
• Support economic resilience for farmers
• Enhance nutritional value of food

This transformation won’t come from inputs alone. It demands an ecosystem shift:

• From synthetic dominance to biological integration
• From input subsidies to soil health incentives
• From chemical fertilisation to soil intelligence systems

A Soil-First Vision: The SHE™ Framework

At SHE™ (Soil Health Expert), we are not anti-fertiliser. We are pro-soil.

We advocate for a framework where:

• Fertiliser application is diagnostics-driven
• Products are evaluated based on soil regeneration indices
• Farmers are rewarded not for volume used, but soil integrity achieved

We envision a future where:

• Soil biology is monitored as routinely as nutrient levels
• Fertiliser companies are audited for ecological impact
• Policymakers link subsidies to verified soil health outcomes

Because the future isn’t fertiliser vs soil. It’s fertiliser for soil.

Yield-Driven vs Regeneration-Driven Fertiliser Logic

References 

1. Anglo American & Deloitte. (2024). The Future of Fertiliser: Expert Perspectives on a Changing Landscape.
2. FAO. (2015). Status of the World’s Soil Resources.
3. Davis, D. R., Epp, M. D., & Riordan, H. D. (2004). Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
4. IPCC. (2021). AR6 Climate Change Report.
5. International Fertilizer Association. (2022). World Fertilizer Trends and Outlook to 2025.
6. WHO. (2020). Micronutrient Deficiencies and Global Health Burden.

Final Word:

 “If fertilisers built the Green Revolution, then soil intelligence must build the Brown Restoration.”

Let us move beyond chemistry. Let us regenerate what feeds us all.

It has long been one of the best kept secrets in the underground world: What determines the variation in form and function of plant roots? An international team of researchers, led by scientists from Wageningen University & Research and the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Halle-Jena-Leipzig, has revealed the strategies that roots use to invest in their tissues: do-it-yourself or outsourcing. In Science Advances they present a new framework that allows us to understand the variation in form and function in roots. “It felt like discovering a hidden treasure.”

Plants, like many other organisms, follow rules of economics when investing in their tissue. The currency is not money, but carbon and nutrients. This economics gradient flows from ‘live fast, die young’ such as the Lathyrus or ginkgo, to ‘slow and steady’ as the oak does. This economic theory works well for leaves. It was long assumed that the same principle applied to the roots, but researchers’ efforts to deliver proof, failed repeatedly.

This problem has now been solved using a database of root characteristics of 1781 plant species from around the globe. In addition to the classical “fast-slow” gradient, there is a second, independent axis that is essential in understanding the form and function of plant roots. This axis is the “operational” gradient for nutrient uptake. It goes from a do-it-yourself strategy with many thin roots, such as followed by the cuckoo flower, to a policy of outsourcing, such as the onion. The onion collaborates intensively with soil fungi, forming a partnership of roots and fungi (mycorrhiza). “Roots that work together with fungi must make room for an ‘exchange counter’ – sugars go from the plant to the fungi and nutrients go the other way around. That ‘counter’ takes up space in the outer cells of the root, which are therefore thicker than in ‘do-it-yourselfers,'” says Prof. Liesje Mommer of Wageningen University & Research. “This new operational axis shows how roots have different ways of functioning.”

This new framework for understanding variations in root characteristics offers recommendations to better understand the way roots work. This insight is useful in future research to predict the subterranean plant response to changing environmental conditions, or to launch new breeding programs.

Professor Liesje Mommer on how the project was started: “It was a collaboration between renowned researchers from Europe and the United States, during an inspiring workshop in Leipzig. We knew a treasure was buried underground near the plant roots, and that finding it required collaboration. Each of us had a piece of the puzzle, but no-one had the whole picture. There it is: You can do it alone, or work together. Plants are just like humans.”

Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-law-variations-roots.html

Another breakthrough in our Nitrogen technology coming your way this 2021.

Let me share with you this video which illustrates one of the best practices in growing crops – sharing. (no copyright infringement intended; credits to the owner)

In order to grow healthy crops and achieve a bountiful harvest, the practice of using similar package of technologies among farmers is pragmatic.

Healthier crops mean more food on our table.

Coupled with this, we are introducing to the Filipino Farmers – our Frontliners in Agriculture – the concept of nutrient fortification of our crops. Substantial nutrients in the food we eat will boost our immune system which we need to combat COVID-19.

Healthier crops mean more nutritious food on our table.

Join us in our fight against crop malnutrition.

To know more how to share to our Farmers, contact us via email: customer.care@bulwarc.com

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