Top Materials Stocks of 2012: CF Industries (No. 6)

With arable land on the decrease and the middle class growing across the globe, farmers are facing increasing pressure to get higher yields from their lands. CF Industries (NYSE: CF  ) , which provides nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers, is poised perfectly to take advantage of this situation. The company is already the No. 1 provider of nitrogen fertilizers in the U.S., and No. 2 worldwide, and its 31.66% growth this year shows that the company is already seeing the benefits of this trend. In this video, Motley Fool materials analyst Taylor Muckerman talks about why this company has had such a strong year, and where it is going from here.

Are you a CF Industries investor who's worried about PotashCorp?
With less and less arable land available around the world, increasing yields from existing plots will become vitally important to keep up with expected population growth. Cheap and effective fertilizers could be the key to achieving this goal. As the global leader in potash production, PotashCorp has several barriers to entry established that make it nearly impossible for competition to break through. Click here now to access The Motley Fool's new premium research report on PotashCorp, in which we cover precisely what these barriers to entry are, and detail several other key reasons why this company presents such a compelling investment opportunity today.