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Curriculum

Our curriculum is structured across multiple learning levels, each designed to deepen your understanding of sustainable fertilizer practices. From foundational concepts to advanced stewardship strategies, our classes blend technical knowledge with real-world case studies and expert insight.
Browse whole curriculum or select keyword to explore classes on specific topic

Finance

Low-Carbon

Nutrient Use Efficiency

Plant Nutrition

Regional Perspectives

Regulations/
Policy

Technology/
Innovation

Water Management

Biodiversity

Circular Economy

Emissions

Biodiversity

Circular Economy

Emissions

Finance

Low-carbon

Nutrient use efficency

Plant nutrition

regional perspectives

Regulations / Policy

Technology / innovation

Water management

Level 1: Introductory

KEYWORDS

DESCRIPTION

L1.01A: Introduction to Sustainability

Taught by: Esben Rahbek Pedersen

The goal of this class is to give students a short introduction to corporate sustainability. Students will get a basic understanding of some of the core dimensions and approaches of corporate sustainability.

L1.01B: Introduction to Fertilizers

Taught by: Terry Roberts

In this introductory class on fertilizers, students will delve into the fundamental concepts of plant nutrition. Throughout this course, students will explore the three primary nutrients that are essential for plant growth: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

L1.02: Introduction to Regulatory Environment and International Cooperation

Taught by: Mohammed Kharbach

This class gives an overview of the sustainable regulatory environment in the context of international cooperation. Students will learn the evolution of the international regulatory environment and the mechanisms that are shaping environmental policy today.

L1.03: Sustainability for Fertilizers

Taught by: Volker Andresen

We are living in unprecedented times with a list of seemingly unsolvable problems like climate change and food security growing, and the pressure on the fertilizer industry to become a significant part of the global solution is rising. Is our license to operate at risk or is this the right time to revise all? In this class, students will discover how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relate to fertilizers, what the present sustainability advancements in our fertilizer business are, and how fertilizer production and use may evolve the next 30 years.

L1.04: Sustainability in Different Regions

Taught by: Cecila Dardes, Jasmine Barahman, Alice McKinnon, Pauline Chivenge, Sachchida Nand, Leo Hui, Mohamed Al Hashemi, Reem Al Bastaki

This class explores the concept of sustainability in different regions around the world. Divided in multiple modules, you will learn about sustainability in the fertilizer industry in Europe, North America, Africa, India, China and the Gulf region.

L1.05: Sustainability Methodology, Measurements and Evaluation

Taught by: Eleanore Arnoud, Daphne Van Osch, Luca Molinari, Bachir Mouhyi, Kristofer Withfield, Benedyct Muirheid, Philip Smee, Carolynn Chalmers

This class will explore the various aspects and methods to measure and evaluate sustainability within the fertilizer industry. Divided in multiple modules, you will learn about ESG risk ratings, IFA’s production benchmarking, the Protect & Sustain initiative and sustainability reporting.

L1.06: Carbon Accounting for the Fertilizer Sector

Taught by: Aditi Kolhekar, Amanda Kraus

Unlock the fundamentals of carbon accounting in the fertilizer sector. This targeted training equips professionals with the knowledge to navigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting, regulatory frameworks, and sustainability strategies specific to greenhouse gas inventories.

L1.07: Global Agricultural Innovation and Investment

Taught by: Bob Morris

This class will go into the historical evolution, trends and drivers of the innovation and investment in global agriculture. It will also touch upon topics relating to plant nutrient value chains, ecosystem stakeholders and growth platforms.

L1.08: Biodiversity: The next wave in sustainability

Taught by: Franck Gbaguidi

This class aims to provide an overview of biodiversity-related impacts, risks, and opportunities for the fertilizer industry. It will explore key nature-related definitions and concepts as well as barriers to and drivers of change.

L1.09: AI in the Fertilizer Industry

Taught by: Debasis Bhaumik

The class "AI in the Fertilizer Industry" discusses the rise of adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the fertilizer industry. This class explores how AI technologies are used in various domains within fertilizer industry thereby promoting sustainable practices. Students will gain an understanding of how AI is used to optimize asset health, automate operations, increase efficiency and productivity of people, and improve environmental monitoring practices.

​L1.10: Introduction to Nutrient Management in Semi- and Arid Agriculture Regions

Taught by: Karl Wyant

In these modules, Dr. Karl Wyant introduces participants to the unique soil chemistry challenges faced in arid and semi-arid agricultural regions. Module 1 focuses on understanding soil properties, such as low organic matter and high pH levels, that impact fertilizer efficiency, emphasizing the need for sustainable intensification. In module 2, the discussion shifts to the crucial role of soil moisture and drought conditions, exploring how water availability influences nutrient uptake, particularly through mass flow and diffusion, and how farmers can adapt fertilizer management to mitigate the effects of water stress on crops.

Level 2A: Product Stewardship

KEYWORDS

DESCRIPTION

L2A.01: Green and Circular Economy

Taught by: Antoine Hoxha, Theo Paquet

This module explores the ongoing transition of the European Fertilizer Industry towards carbon neutrality. It assesses the significant work that has already been achieved and identifies the technological pathways moving forward alongside the regulatory drivers.

L2A.02: Safety and Security in Production

Taught by: Jeff Dowson

This class will go into the elements concerning safety and security in production and why safety should always be the number 1 priority in the workplace.

L2A.03: Fertilizer Quality and Quality Control

Taught by: Jan Petter Fossum

Product quality is about meeting our customers’ expectations on physical and chemical quality but also on the services and the delivery. In this webinar the main focus will be what impacts the physical and chemical quality.

L2A.04: Sustainable Ammonia Production – Part 1

Taught by: Kevin Rouwenhorst

Introduction to new ways of ammonia production, its role in the future of energy landscapes and the technology to synthesize low carbon ammonia

L2A.05: Sustainable Ammonia Production – Part 2

Taught by: Gerardo Duarte

This class will go into the why the production of nitrogen-based fertilizers and fertilizers itself shall adapt to our changing world.

L2A.06: Sustainable Phosphate Production – Part 1

Taught by: Hicham Benyoucef

This class is an introductory presentation focusing on Sustainable Phosphate Production. The class will provide an overview of the big challenges of the phosphate industry and the P efficient use, generated waste and losses occurring within the whole value chain, starting from the mining and beneficiation passing by the chemicals and fertilizers production.

L2A.07: Sustainable Phosphate Production – Part 2

Taught by: Julian Hilton, Malika Moussaid

This new, more advanced learning unit looks at the major changes now going on in valorisation and use of phosphogypsum (PG) all around the world. In the process the module introduces the third IFA PG Report “From Waste to Inventory” – the PG business case. The report is in three sections: A - covering the financial and investment case; B - case studies on a wide range of technical and scientific activities associated largely with road building, cement and construction materials and of course soil amendments for saline, sodic soils and sulphur-deficient soils; and C - some of the remarkable break-out uses of PG now already in or close to entering global markets.

L2A.08: Sustainable Mining

Taught by: Abdelhadi Khaldoun

This course is developed with the aim to provide participants with the main basics and challenges related to sustainable mining.

L2A.09: Ammonia Technology Roadmap

Taught by: Peter Levi

An increasingly numerous and affluent global population will lead to growth in ammonia production, during a period in which governments around the world have declared that emissions from the energy system must head towards net zero. This class provides an overview of the IEA’s Ammonia Technology Roadmap, released in October 2021.

L2A.10: Finance for Sustainability

Taught by: Kobi Ilia

Our Sustainability Finance class introduces you to the world of ESG finance and how the world of ESG finance is developing and the importance it has for a more sustainable future.

L2A.11: Sustainable Water Management

Taught by: Hicham Benyoucef

This class is an introductory presentation focusing on: Sustainable Water Management: Fertilizer production as a case study. The fertilizer industry can be assimilated to conventional chemical industry, and is based on phosphorus (phosphate rock), nitrogen (Ammonia) and potassium (potassium containing ores) in various combinations.

L2A.12: Net Zero Emissions

Taught by: Matt Rellaford

This class, gives an overview of carbon markets, their role in agriculture, and how they fit with reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from fertilizer application.

L2A.13: Scope 1&2 Emissions Reporting

Taught by: Viktorija Stojcheva

This class will dive into topics regarding greenhouse gas foot printing, carbon foot printing and Science Based Targets (SBT’s) Initiative.

L2A.14: Scope 3 Emissions Reporting

Taught by: Tom Bruulsema, Paddy Ellen, Thomas Hegarty

This class will examine fertilizer emissions in the field, with a focus on emissions from the soil during fertilizer application and possible solutions from the fertilizer industry.

L2A.15: From Secondary Sources to Recycled Fertilizers

Taught by: Mickey Vinocour

This class explores the transition from traditional to sustainable fertilizer production using secondary sources. Students will examine macro trends analysis on land and water pollution, ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions, geopolitical resource scarcity, and the inventory of secondary sources like agricultural waste and industrial by-products.

L2A.16: Sustainability in Shipping and Logistics

Taught by: Tobias Deichmann

The “Sustainability in Shipping and Logistics” class aims to give participants an overview of the rapid environmental changes occurring in the drybulk transportation sector. The course will explore the current environmental landscape, existing regulations, and both current and future strategies for reducing emissions. Additionally, it will provide concrete price examples to illustrate the impact of regulatory changes on the overall cost of fertilizer transportation. The course is designed with a focus on the fertilizer industry to enhance its relevance for IFA members.

L2A.17: Sustainable Potash Production

Taught by: Ahmad AlMbaidin

This class introduces the fundamentals of sustainable potash production and its importance for global food security. It provides a high-level overview of potash-based products (MOP, NOP, SOP) and production pathways, while focusing on sustainability topics covering ESG aspects.

Level 2B: Nutrient Stewardship

KEYWORDS

DESCRIPTION

L2B.01: A New Paradigm for Plant Nutrition – Introduction

Taught by: Tom Bruulsema

This class deals with management of nutrients for sustainable agricultural production, focusing on the paradigm of Responsible Plant Nutrition which contributes to productive and profitable farms.

L2B.02: Nutrient Budget and Nutrient Use Efficiency

Taught by: Xin Zhang

This class highlights the urgent needs for improving nutrient use efficiency and provides basic knowledge about nutrient use efficiency.

L2B.03: Policies and Roadmaps for Sustainable Nitrogen Management

Taught by: David Kanter

“Policies and roadmaps for sustainable nitrogen management” introduces the central challenges of creating policies to address nitrogen pollution.

L2B.04: Data drive – Crop Nutrition

Taught by: Steve Philipps

This class will delve into data-driven information which is used to improve on-farm decision making, different data types such as soil type maps, crop yield maps, soil fertility maps among many others, and their various uses.

L2B.05: Nutrient Recovery and Recycling

Taught by: Pytrik Reidsma

Circular economy solutions for greater nutrient recovery and recycling. Crop-livestock integration, less food waste, by-products use and increased nutrient recovery and recycling are key measures to optimize nutrient use efficiency across the whole food supply chain.

L2B.06: Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture

Taught by: Jessica Fanzo, Martin Broadley

This class will link agriculture versus human nutrition, nutrition-sensitive farming and biofortification, and will delve into how food crops are produced with higher nutritional value to address persisting as well as emerging mineral nutrient deficiencies and the triple burden of undernutrition which are micronutrient malnutrition, overweight/obesity and other non-communicable diseases.

L2B.07: Technology Innovation and Novel Fertilizers

Taught by: Adnane Bargaz, Munir Rusan, Michael McLaughlin

Fertilizers will increasingly be produced in an environmentally friendly manner and they will embody greater amounts of knowledge to control the release of nutrients to the plant. Innovation in fertilizer formulation will lead to environmentally-friendly fertilizers that maximize nutrient capture by the crop and minimize losses of nutrients.

L2B.08: Nutrient Stewardship Practice

Taught by: Tom Bruulsema, Bernard Vanlauwe, Fusuo Zhang

This class goes into the regional approaches of nutrient stewardship in North America (4R Stewardship), Africa (ISFM), China.

L2B.09: Sustainable Food Production Chains

Taught by: Ken Giller

The fundamentals underlying regenerative agriculture will be extensively covered in this class. It will describe how the idea came to be, if it can withstand scrutiny, its primary criticisms, how it is used in the agricultural field, and lastly, a description of various methods to measure and monitor progress.

L2B.10: Biodiversity and Fertilizer Use

Taught by: Achim Dobermann

“Fertilizers and biodiversity” discusses how fertilizer use impacts biodiversity. We define biodiversity and analyze the major trends and biodiversity threats observed in recent decades, as well as how nutrients have negative or positive effects on different aspects of biodiversity.

L2B.11: Intermediate Concepts to Nutrient Management in Semi- and Arid Agriculture Regions

Taught by: Karl Wyant

The following modules explore strategies for sustainable fertilizer and water management in arid and semi-arid regions, focusing on mitigating environmental challenges such as drought, salinity, and water scarcity. Dr. Wyant delves into optimizing irrigation techniques, soil moisture management, and water quality to enhance crop productivity while conserving resources. The modules also emphasize the relationship between soil health, water infiltration, and nutrient use efficiency, with practical insights provided through case studies of desert farming practices, including alfalfa, cotton, and avocado crops.

individual
enrollment

Enroll as an individual and gain immediate access to all available SFA content. Learn at your own pace, earn certifications, and stay up to date with the latest developments in sustainable fertilizer practices.

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Company
access

Through our Company Access option, organizations can integrate SFA classes into their internal training programs, equipping their teams with industry-leading knowledge on sustainable fertilizer practices. This training can also be included in team KPIs and sustainability performance goals.
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