Global consumption of fertilizer has doubled since 1980 but some regions that have historically overused fertilizer, including in China and parts of Europe, have taken steps to reduce use. Those are some of the findings of a new global dataset from the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.
Deepak Ray, a research professor at the Institute on the Environment, spent six years leading the development of a new global dataset of crop-specific fertilizer application rates. The team's analysis of the data was recently published in Environmental Research Letters.
Optimizing fertilizer use - correcting underuse while reducing overuse - could produce enough crops to feed the world while limiting environmental harms. But to achieve this balance, we need to know the global rates of fertilizer application - information that has only ever existed as fragments or snapshots in time.
The new global dataset - created in collaboration with Tek Sapkota of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and Achim Dobermann of the International Fertilizer Association - provides crop-specific nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer application rates for every country spanning 1980 to 2022. The team compiled 800,000 existing data points, building imputation software to complete the picture. The resulting dataset includes application rates for 156 crops plus pastures and forests, providing the first-ever picture of all three major nutrients, at the individual crop level, in a continuous global record.
Their analysis found:
- The global consumption of fertilizers has at least doubled since 1980, though there are more than ten-fold gaps in nitrogen application rates between regions with the highest and lowest rates of fertilizer use.
- Regions that had high and often excessive fertilizer application rates in the early 1980s - such as parts of Europe - and in the early 2000s - such as parts of China - are now moving towards reduced rates of fertilizer use.
- Countries that had very low and often insufficient applications four decades ago, including Ethiopia and Vietnam, are moving toward higher rates of fertilizer use. Some regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are using only minimal fertilizer and could see enhanced crop yield if they adopted more fertilizer practices.
"This information can help identify regions that aren't using the right amount or combination of fertilizers to achieve optimal crop yield," said Ray. "It also can identify areas that are using too much fertilizer, which is financially and environmentally costly."
Getting the balance right matters. Too little fertilizer suppresses yields, limiting food production and farmer incomes. Excessive fertilizer use, however, can result in acidic soil, preventing crops from getting the nutrients they need, and nutrient run-off, which can lead to dead zones in the ocean. Excess fertilizer can also convert into nitrous oxide, which is approximately 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Through crop-specific fertilizer data, countries can design targeted nutrient management strategies to reduce fertilizer imports and emissions while increasing food production.
"There is no single global fertilizer challenge: some regions need to use nutrients more efficiently, while others still need greater access to plant nutrition to close yield gaps," said Dobermann. "This dataset helps us see those differences with unprecedented clarity, providing a stronger evidence base for decisions that support both food security and environmental sustainability."
The complete dataset and imputation software are available through University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization - free of charge for academic research use. A snapshot of the data, circa 2020, is also archived with open access on Dryad.
