Solid, science-based evidence indicates an increasing role for fertilizer P in North American agriculture. This presentation made by Paul Fixen at the 18th Annual Regional Phosphate Conference in Lakeland, Florida on October 16,2003, offers the following five take-away-messages.

1. Phosphorus removed from U.S. farmlands by today’s crops exceeds use by 30% if manure P is ignored due to its localized use.
2. Counting all recoverable manure P as agronomically useful results in a barely balanced budget, giving no opportunity to improve soil fertility or meet needs of the higher yielding crops of the future.
3. Nearly one out of every two soils sampled today indicates a need for a balanced or surplus P budget to produce to full potential.
4. An increase in P use must occur on many fields for farming systems to be sustainable … based on simple arithmetic.
5. The fertilizer industry has several excellent new programs in place to increase awareness of P shortages.