About 75% of fertilizers and fertilizer technology used around the world today were developed or improved during the 1950s to 1970s by scientists and engineers at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), says John Shields, a former TVA official.

“An investment of $41 million in fertilizer research through 1981 returned an incredible $57 billion to the U.S.” Shields says. “That doesn’t include benefits of the technology to the rest of the world.”

Inadequate public funding caused closure of the fertilizer research program at TVA in the early 1990s. Today, publicly funded fertilizer research and development has essentially ceased?EUR??,,????'??+and so has the flow of new and more efficient fertilizers and fertilizer manufacturing technologies.

“The $57 billion return from a $41 million investment included about $49 billion from use of high-analysis fertilizers and $8 billion from process development and improvement. That’s a benefit:cost ratio of more than $20 to $1.

Dr. Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Laureate, says, “I am concerned about the state of the fertilizer industry itself. With the price of energy increasing, we need to find cheaper, more effective ways.

“Work should begin now on the next generation of fertilizer products using advanced techniques such as nanotechnology and molecular biology, especially in conjunction with plant genetics research. ‘Smart’ fertilizer products that will release nutrients only at the time and in the amount needed should be developed.”