Global Fertilizer Use Dataset
Completed
CHALLENGE
Optimizing fertilizer – 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 crop-specific global rates of fertilizer application – information that has only ever existed as coarse national averages and snapshots in time.
SOLUTION
A new global dataset of crop-specific nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer application rates for every country spanning 1980 to 2022. The dataset and imputation model, which can be licensed for research and industry uses, includes application rates for 156 crops, plus pastures and forests, with subnational resolution for 10 major crops in 25 agriculturally important countries, providing the first-ever picture of all three major nutrients, at the individual crop level, in a continuous global record.
Funding
IonE, CGIAR
Partner Organization(s)
PROJECT LEADS
Research Professor in Global Landscapes
Tek Sapkota
Scientist for Agricultural Systems and Climate Change
Achim Dobermann
Chief Scientist
A Comprehensive Picture of Global Fertilizer Use
To produce enough crops to feed the world, we need fertilizer. Some studies say that fertilizer alone generates food for about half the world’s population, and yet there are parts of the world that aren’t using the right amount or combination of fertilizers to achieve optimal crop yield.
Other parts of the world are using too much fertilizer, which is financially and environmentally costly. Excessive fertilizer can result in acidic soil, preventing crops from getting the nutrients they need, and phosphorus run-off, which can lead to dead zones in the ocean where plants and animals cannot survive. Excess fertilizer can also convert into nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
“The challenge is: How do you bring more fertilizer to areas that need it to increase crop production and reduce fertilizer use in areas that use too much?” says Deepak Ray, lead author and IonE research professor. “To be able to accomplish these goals, we need to know how much and which kind of fertilizer is being applied in each country.”
Identifying how much fertilizer is being applied in different parts of the world is surprisingly difficult; the data exist as piecemeal snapshots in time – or at gross national levels, without the ability to parse what nutrients are going toward rice, for example, versus corn versus soy. That’s why Ray, in collaboration with Tek Sapkota of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and Achim Dobermann of the International Fertilizer Association, built a new global dataset of crop-specific nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer application rates spanning 1980 to 2022.
In order to build a comprehensive picture, Ray and his collaborators not only had to collect extensive data – they also had to develop and test a sophisticated model to fill in the blanks, a scientific process called data imputation. Six years, 800,000 reported data points, and 20,000 lines of computer code later, they had it: a dataset with 156 crops, plus pastures and forests, with sub-national resolution for 10 major crops in 25 agriculturally significant countries.
Meet the Project Team
Project Leads
Deepak Ray
Fellow
Since 2022
Staff
Since 2009
Research Professor in Global Landscapes
Institute on the Environment
Tek Sapkota
Scientist for Agricultural Systems and Climate Change
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Achim Dobermann
Chief Scientist
International Fertilizer Association
Key Insights
Global Consumption of Fertilizers in Crops (1980–2020)
68%
Increase in N-fertilizer application
52%
Increase in P-fertilizer application
69%
Increase in K-fertilizer application
While fertilizer usage is on the rise, more than ten-fold gaps in N-fertilizer applications exist between regions with the highest and lowest application rates. The recent increases in N- and P-fertilizer consumption were driven more by expansion of harvested areas than increasing application rates, though K-fertilizer increases are driven by both expansion and increased application rates.
Dataset analysis also showed that most countries go through three major fertilizer use phases.
- Phase one: fertilizer use increases and drives expansion of croplands, crop yields and farming profits.
- Phase two: fertilizer use increases to the point of harming the soil and negatively impacting crop yield.
- Phase three: government policies, regulations and incentives combined with new technologies lead to reduced fertilizer application rates while maintaining or increasing crop productivity.
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, while countries that had very low and often insufficient applications four decades ago, including Ethiopia and Vietnam, are moving toward higher rates. Some regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are using only minimal fertilizer and could see enhanced crop yield if they adopted more fertilizer practices.
“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. 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,” says Dobermann, who serves as chief scientist at IFA.
The trends in national or sub-national fertilizer application rates for major crops reflect the longer-term success or failure of government policies, the wider adoption of new practices and technologies by farmers and occasional global or regional economic or supply chain shocks.
This analysis is excerpted from “Diverse trajectories of global fertilizer use in the post-Green Revolution period” published in Environmental Research Letters.
Funding & Acknowledgements
Funding for this work was provided by the Institute on the Environment and CGIAR Grant 69604; CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Ray additionally acknowledges the support of the World Resources Institute Land & Carbon Lab (Grant G3275) and U.S. Geological Survey (Grant G24AC00247-00).