The sustainable use of phosphorus in agriculture will be the center of scientific debates from August 20 to 22, in Brasília, DF, Brazil, during the VI Sustainable Phosphotus Summit (SPS2018), a world-level forum. Embrapa is one of the organizers of this event's edition, which will take place in the Southern hemisphere for the first time and whose registration is open. A recent study published by researchers from Embrapa Soils (Rio de Janeiro, RJ) and other Brazilian institutions has revealed that nearly half of the phosphorus applied to agriculture as inorganic fertilizer in the last 50 years in Brazil remains fixed in the soil. Such legacy - which represents 22.8 million tons of the input still on the earth, today worth over U$ 40 billion - can help Brazil take measures against a possible future scarcity of the nutrient or price variations. In 2008, for instance, the market value of phosphate rock increased 800% in a period of 18 months. “We intend to show a more realistic scenario for phosphorus use in Brasil to the world”, reveals Vinicius Benites, deputy-head of R&D at Embrapa Soils. SPS 2018 will also discuss scenarios in Asia, Africa and the Pacific, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities in those regions. Confirmed guest speakers include Tom Bruulsema, from the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), in Canada; Per-Erik Mellander, from the Johnstown Castle Environmental Research Centre (Teagasc), in Ireland; and Dana Cordell, from the Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS), in Australia. The summits to discuss the sustainable use of phosphorus started in 2010, in Sweden. The following forums were held in the United States (2011), Australia (2012), France (2014) and China (2016). The Brazilian edition will gather leaders in science, industry and policy-making in order to identify action concerning the availability and accessibility of the nutrient in food security and in agriculture, protecting the environment and support urban and rural life. Contact details +55 43 3025-5223 sps2018@fbeventos.com Translation: Mariana Medeiros