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Global food security threatened by potassium neglect

Nature Food volume 5, pages 111–115 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Food security and healthy ecosystems are placed in jeopardy by poor potassium management. Six actions may prevent declines in crop yield due to soil potassium deficiency, safeguard farmers from potash price volatility and address environmental concerns associated with potash mining.

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Fig. 1: Global consumption of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus used for fertilizer production between 1961 and 2021.
Fig. 2: The monthly prices of potassium chloride, triple super phosphate and urea used in fertilizer production between January 2007 and October 2023.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK

    Will J. Brownlie, Mark A. Sutton & Bryan M. Spears

  2. School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Peter Alexander

  3. Department of Geography, University College London, London, UK

    Mark Maslin

  4. FEHM-Lab, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

    Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles

Authors
  1. Will J. Brownlie
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  2. Peter Alexander
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  3. Mark Maslin
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  4. Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles
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  5. Mark A. Sutton
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  6. Bryan M. Spears
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Contributions

W.J.B. conceived the idea of the paper, led the writing of the Perspective, and collated and conducted data analysis. P.A., M.M., M.C.-A., M.A.S. and B.M.S. contributed to writing the paper.

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Correspondence to Will J. Brownlie.

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Nature Food thanks David Kanter and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Brownlie, W.J., Alexander, P., Maslin, M. et al. Global food security threatened by potassium neglect. Nat Food 5, 111–115 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-00929-8

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