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The phosphorus trilemma

Mineable phosphorus reserves are confined to a handful of countries. Reductions in wastage could free up this resource for low-income, food-deficient countries.

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Figure 1: Global map of phosphorus-fertilizer input for wheat (kg P per hectare), estimated for around the year 2000.

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Correspondence to Josep Peñuelas.

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Obersteiner, M., Peñuelas, J., Ciais, P. et al. The phosphorus trilemma. Nature Geosci 6, 897–898 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1990

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