North American grain uses less fertilizer per tonne, study finds

A tonne of grain produced in the United States carried about 13 kilograms of applied nutrient on a three-year average to 2023, compared with 32 kilograms in Canada, 53 kilograms in China and 62 kilograms in Brazil. That is the core finding of a paper published by Omnigence Asset Management, a Calgary-based investment manager, on November 4.

The paper, “Fertilizer Efficiency in Four Grain Systems: The North American Input Advantage,” draws on Food and Agriculture Organization data from 1961 to 2023 for the United States, Canada, Brazil and China.

The authors say the United States is the only one of the four that produces more grain per kilogram of nutrient today than in 1961. Since 1980, U.S. cereal yield has doubled while the application rate rose 14%. The paper attributes that pattern to genetics, seed placement, drainage and nutrient timing rather than higher fertilizer volumes. In China, the application rate fell 20% from its 2014 peak while yields rose a further 8%.

The paper links input efficiency to farmland exposure, noting that fertilizer prices are driven by natural gas and phosphate rock. Omnigence director Stephen Johnston said the research gives investors “a long-run, data-based view” of how input efficiency differs across farmland markets.

Veripath, a partner fund of Omnigence, invests in Canadian farmland. Because the research came from an investment manager with a stake in farmland, its conclusions should be read with that in mind.

Public funding is also pushing the efficiency agenda, with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research backing a set of grants aimed at helping crops use fertilizer more effectively.