# The ‘miracle mineral’ the world needs

> A BBC feature reports that phosphorus is essential for crops and that fertiliser is often expensive or unavailable for smallholder farmers. It describes a demonstration farm in Blantyre, Malawi, teaching farmers to make thermic compost from corn stalks and chicken manure as a low-cost soil improver. The compost is presented as a way to reduce dependence on mineral fertilisers.

- Date: 2019-02-04 · published 2019-02-04T12:00:00.000Z
- Category: market · region Malawi · magnitude low
- Page: https://feedsoft.ai/events/60928-the-miracle-mineral-the-world-needs
- Commodities: [Phosphate Rock](https://feedsoft.ai/c/PHOSROCK.md)

## Why it matters

Wider adoption of compost could marginally reduce demand for mineral phosphate fertilisers in smallholder Africa, though the effect on global phosphate rock prices is negligible in the near term.

## Read by commodity

- PHOSROCK: neutral

## Sources

- bbc.com: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190114-compost-or-phosphorus-fertiliser-in-africa-agriculture

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Data from Feedsoft AI (https://feedsoft.ai/). For information only; not investment advice.