Concerns about the environmental imapct of fertilisers grows
Fertilisers are a key driver in production and integral to the farming process. However there are concerns are raised about the environmental impact of commercial fertilisers used by farmers.
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00:00 Here in Canada's Saskatchewan province, we're travelling a kilometre underground.
00:18 It takes four minutes in the cage to reach the mine floor.
00:28 And another half hour travelling in these electric vehicles to reach the face of this
00:33 potash mine.
00:38 Potash is a rich source of potassium.
00:40 It can be used in detergents and pharmaceuticals, but by far its most common use is in fertilisers.
00:47 In recent years, almost a third of the globe's potash has come from Canada, from mines just
00:53 like this one.
00:55 Chad Litsenberger is the mine's superintendent.
00:58 This mining machine is a $30 million mining machine and set up that chews the face, cuts
01:05 the ore, puts it into a conveyor system in the front and ultimately starts to convey
01:11 it into the conveyor belt system to get to the shaft.
01:15 Chewing away up to 900 tonnes of ore an hour.
01:18 The ore is about 40% potash, 5% clay and 55% sodium chloride, or salt.
01:26 The ground underneath is incredibly soft, a little bit like walking on sand at the beach.
01:31 We've got to watch out for some of these cables.
01:34 It's really warm too, it's 27 degrees year round.
01:39 But what really blows my mind is the fact that this mineral coming out here will be
01:46 exported to almost every continent around the globe.
01:50 And that's helping farmers to feed millions of people.
01:53 For Chad, a trip to India some years ago highlighted the impact of using fertilisers such as potash.
02:01 I can remember one conversation where one of the farmers said they are growing their
02:07 crops and having a nine time yield increase.
02:12 And as he was talking about this I asked him, well what do you do with all the extra material?
02:16 And he said he had so much that he actually bought a grain bin.
02:19 I'm a Saskatchewan farm background kid so I'm looking around for a 20,000 bushel bin
02:24 and I couldn't see it anywhere.
02:26 And I finally asked him, where's your grain bin?
02:27 He said, well you're leaning on it.
02:29 There's this barrel, a 200 litre barrel.
02:33 And it was starting to hit me that...
02:35 That's more like a garbage bin.
02:37 Exactly.
02:38 And so then I asked him what he does with all the extra, assuming that he would sell
02:43 it on the market or buy something.
02:44 And he said, well we eat more.
02:46 And this is when it hit me, the purpose that we do here, the agriculture sector that we're
02:51 in.
02:52 And so sometimes I feel like we get a little disconnected from the day to day activities
02:55 and what we're doing in a mining operation but the purpose that we have is to truly support
02:59 people in the world.
03:00 [Music]
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