Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Research Horizons in the Modern World‖ (March 27-29, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Warsaw, Poland, 2026. - 135 p.

23 Qatar suspended operations at the world's largest urea facility; India scaled back production at three plants; Bangladesh shuttered four of its five relevant factories; and Pakistan and Egypt either halted output or shifted to significantly costlier LNG- based processes. In the United States, fertilizer shortfalls already stand at roughly 25% of current demand, while no country maintains strategic fertilizer stockpiles remotely comparable to oil reserves. Middle Eastern urea prices climbed 40% — from under $500 to above $700 per tonne, representing a 60% year-on-year increase — and overall fertilizer costs have risen by more than a third since hostilities began. Analysts project a potential doubling of nitrogen fertilizer prices and a 50% rise in phosphate costs; in Kenya, farm-level fertilizer expenditure has already increased by 40% [2-4, 9, 10]. Regional Dimensions of the Crisis. Countries across the Middle East and North Africa are among those most exposed to food insecurity. Gulf states depend on imports for 77% of their rice, 89% of corn, 95% of soybeans, and 91% of edible oils, while annual per capita wheat consumption in the region exceeds 90 kilograms. In Iran, food price inflation climbed to 40% on an annual basis, rice prices increased sevenfold, and the cost of lentils and cooking oil tripled; FAOSTAT figures placed retail food inflation at 42% in September 2025. Water supply represents a further critical vulnerability: Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait source between 70% and 90% of their freshwater from desalination, with more than 400 plants — generating roughly 40% of the world's desalinated water — serving approximately 100 million people. Strikes against desalination infrastructure in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia therefore pose direct threats to both water and food security. It is worth recalling that the bread riots that swept the region in 2011–2012 were directly triggered by wheat price spikes, underscoring the acute socio-political sensitivity of food affordability in this part of the world [4- 6, 9]. Global Dimensions of Food Price Inflation. Across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia — encompassing Sudan (which sources over 50% of its fertilizers via the Strait of Hormuz), Sri Lanka (over 33%), Tanzania (31%), as well as Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Somalia — farmers have been unable to apply fertilizers during the