As the conflict in the Middle East enters its fourth month, and fertilizer supply remains erratic and prices volatile, the Global Alliance for the Future of Food commissioned a series of interviews with farmers through journalist Jack Thompson to understand how some farmers have been better shielded from the food crisis by using bio fertilizers, crop rotations, and sharing knowledge.

Unlike his neighbors, Peter Mudzingwa, a Zimbabwean farmer from the southern province of Masvingo, who grows millet, sorghum, oats and cowpeas, has not been tracking the rising price of fertilizers in the last four months since the war in Iran started. The steady stream of local farmers asking him about his compost techniques, legume cover crops, and using livestock manure—all practices to replace expensive chemical fertilizer—is sign enough that many farmers in the region are considering replacements for expensive synthetic inputs.

“Fellow farmers are asking me, how do you make your compost, how do you get a good crop without chemical fertilizer?” says Mudzingwa. They tell him the price of one sack of 50 kg has increased by 30 percent compared to last season, equivalent to a fifth of a typical farmer’s monthly salary—an extremely heavy burden to bear.