The Soil Association has claimed soaring oil prices and climate change are “exposing fertilisers as economically and environmentally unsustainable”.

With the price of nitrogen fertiliser doubling over the past year to around £330 a tonne, and the cost of fertilisers expected to hit £500 a tonne, the Soil Association is adamant the efficiency of industrial farming will collapse.

Robin Maynard, campaigns director at the Soil Association, said: “Rising oil and gas prices and the imperative of cutting greenhouse gases to curb climate change expose industrial agriculture’s dependency on artificial fertilisers as both economically and environmentally unsustainable. Farmers here in the UK and in developing countries would do better for themselves and the planet by shifting to sustainable organic farming, that builds fertility using the sun’s energy and nature’s own fertiliser factory, clover.”

In a statement, the Soil Association said: “The environmental imperative of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 per cent across all sectors to curb dangerous climate change make intensive agriculture’s dependence on nitrogen fertiliser unsustainable.

“Contrary to the claims of the agrochemical and GM lobby, many farmers in developing countries are increasing their yields and building fertility without expensive, environmentally damaging artificial fertilisers. Farmers in Ethiopia have achieved fivefold increases in yields, by supplementing traditional methods with modern organic techniques, such as composting.”

Dr Tewolde Berhan Egziabher, head of the Ethiopian Environment Agency, said: “In a harsh climate and a largely agricultural economy, we need to rediscover an approach to agriculture which supports long-term food security and protects soil fertility. Organic farming is the way forward for Ethiopia, and it is also an approach which can help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by mechanised farming and the petrochemical inputs in richer countries.”

Danish research presented to a UN Conference in 2007 found that in sub-Saharan Africa, a conversion of up to 50 per cent of agriculture to organic methods would be likely to increase food availability and decrease food import dependency. “Organic yields can fall off to begin with, typically by only 10-15 per cent, but it brings greater benefits in that poor farmers no longer have to rely on expensive, imported fertilisers and pesticides,” said the Soil Association.

Commenting on the research, Alexander Mueller, assistant director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, said considering climate change will target the world’s poor and most vulnerable, “a shift to organic agriculture could be beneficial”.

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