Despite growing concern around fertilizer volatility, the policy conversation in Washington remains narrowly focused on supply, with most solutions centered on increasing domestic production, securing raw materials or easing global trade disruptions.
While those efforts are important, they operate on longer timelines and do little to influence the decisions farmers are making for their operations right now.
At the farm level, growers are not simply absorbing higher costs; they are actively recalibrating how fertilizer is applied, adjusting rates, timing and nutrient mixes in response to tightening margins and continued uncertainty. According to a recent survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation, roughly 70 percent of U.S. farmers report being unable to afford all needed fertilizer at current prices, reinforcing how widespread these pressures have become. For many, that concern intensifies when looking ahead to the 2027 season, according to research from the National Corn Growers Association.
In many cases, these are not incremental adjustments but fundamental decisions that directly determine yield potential for the current crop year. Those shifts are already happening across millions of acres, and they introduce a near-term risk that supply-side policy alone cannot address.
Fertilizer sits upstream of the entire food system, which means that changes in how it is applied move quickly through production, tightening supply and increasing price pressure downstream. The policy challenge, therefore, is not simply ensuring that more fertilizer is available over time but ensuring that the fertilizer already in the system is used as effectively as possible in the near term.
That is where the current approach falls short.
Efficiency remains one of the most immediate and underutilized levers for stabilizing fertilizer markets and strengthening agricultural resilience, yet it is not being treated as such within existing policy frameworks. The ability to maintain yields while using fewer inputs reduces demand pressure on global markets, provides growers with greater flexibility during periods of volatility, and creates a buffer against the kinds of energy and geopolitical disruptions that have become increasingly common. This is particularly relevant in phosphorus systems, where improving nutrient availability and uptake efficiency can allow growers to maintain performance even as application rates are reduced.
Importantly, this is not a question of whether the tools exist.
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers already enable more precise nutrient use while maintaining performance, and many growers are aware of or actively exploring these approaches. The constraint is not innovation, but access, as current USDA programs and approval pathways do not consistently recognize or support efficiency-driven solutions in a way that allows for rapid adoption.
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Addressing this gap does not require new legislation, but rather a more coordinated use of existing authorities. Aligning definitions across USDA agencies and with AAPFCO standards would provide clarity around what constitutes an efficiency-driven solution, while expanding eligibility within existing conservation and incentive programs would allow more growers to adopt these practices without delay. At the same time, accelerating funding and deployment through programs such as EQIP and CSP, particularly for approaches that demonstrate measurable reductions in application rates without yield loss, would help scale solutions that are already proving effective in the field.
Taken together, these steps would better align policy to optimize fertilizer management and critical mineral use, expand cost-share access for growers adopting efficiency practices, and provide a practical pathway to influence outcomes in the near term.
Because fertilizer security is not solely a function of how much is produced.
It is also a function of how efficiently it is used.
At present, that inefficiency represents a significant and largely overlooked vulnerability within the food system, but it is one that can be addressed with tools that are already available and with policy adjustments that are well within reach.
There is a narrowing window in which those adjustments can still shape farmer decision-making and, by extension, yield outcomes and food price trajectories in the months and years ahead.
By the time those effects become visible in supply data or at the grocery store, the opportunity to act will have passed.
If Washington is serious about strengthening fertilizer resilience, efficiency cannot remain a secondary consideration. It must be treated as a central component of the solution.
Hunter Swisher is CEO of Phospholutions, where he works across the fertilizer value chain to advance phosphorus efficiency as a practical, near-term lever for strengthening U.S. agricultural and national security.