peak phosphate? spells end of cheap food , page-2

Its strange that the investment houses don't understand that you can have a phosphate boom without a potash boom, but you can't have a potash boom without a phosphate boom.

Phosphate is always the first fertilizer commodity to rise simply because it is the first fertilizer used in the course of growing a crop. It must be applied at sowing. Phosphate is never applied after sowing. This is largely because it is the most immobile of nutrients to move in the soil and can be chemically bound in the soil as well. It must be placed directly under germinating seeds for optimal efficiency use.

Nitrogen and potash are generally always applied later as seasonal conditions unfold.