{"id":19065,"date":"2016-03-21T13:16:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T18:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19065"},"modified":"2016-03-21T13:16:27","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T18:16:27","slug":"phosphate-all-hopes-rest-on-morocco-walan-et-al-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19065","title":{"rendered":"Phosphate: All hopes rest on Morocco Walan et al., 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phosphate: All hopes rest on Morocco Walan et al., 2014<\/a><\/h3>\n
Walan, P., Davidsson, S., Johansson, S., H\u00f6\u00f6k, M. (2014)\u00a0Phosphate rock production and depletion: Regional disaggregated modeling and global implications<\/a>. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 93(0): 178-187\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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[ My summary of paper: If you look around for what share Morocco has of phosphate reserves, you\u2019ll see figures of 75 to 85% that will last 300-400 years.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not a done deal as Walan et al point out.<\/p>\n

Phosphate is absolutely essential for high agricultural production, one of the \u201cbig 3\u201d nutrients that boosts maximum crop growth (along with nitrogen and potassium). This paper points out that just like oil, it is the flow rate \u2013 how much is actually produced per year \u2014 that matters, not how much phosphate exists.<\/p>\n

Phosphate can be \u201clocal\u201d. For example, China and the U.S. use most of their phosphate domestically.<\/p>\n

Morocco is the largest exporter and also has the largest deposits. So no worries?\u00a0 Hopefully not, but there are factors such as below which could lower Moroccan exports:<\/p>\n