Problems Faced by the Fertilizer Industry
In the development and maintainance of the fertilizer industry, there are several problems and challenges that need to be solved.
- Need for more fertilizer
As the population of the world increases on a daily basis, more and more food production is needed in both developed and developing countries. Therefore, to sustain this situation, more fertilizer is needed to be produced. As an increased population is expected over the years, the world fertilizer consumption is expected to double up within the few coming years.
- Infrastructure difficulties
In producing more fertilizer, another obstacle is the infrastructure difficulties. This term refers to mainly the infrastructure such as fertilizer plants especially in developing countries. In these countries, there is less effort to develop fertilizer industry but instead production is more focused on other industries that are more beneficial in terms of cash.
Other than that, utilities inadequacy also causes problems in the industry. Utilities such as power supply, and water are limited in developing countries where the fertilizer plants are mainly built away from cities and thus limits power and water supply. Raw materials and final product transportation also is a challenge as the cost for transporting these materials is high.
- Delays in construsting fertilizer projects and bringing them into production
The delays refer to the time lag from the date expenses are obtained and orders placed to the date when production actually takes place. In developed countries, this process takes up to 2 years while in developing countries, 4 years. This delay is caused by several other delays in form of local equipment supllies, man power and raw materials.