【ITBEAR】According to news on August 11, in recent years, the use of chemical fertilizers in China has been a focus of attention in the agricultural field. What is particularly concerning is that although China occupies an important position in global fertilizer consumption, it faces a serious shortage of key potassium fertilizer resources. The issue highlights China's agriculture's high dependence on global resources and the challenges it faces in ensuring food self-sufficiency. As the cornerstone of modern agriculture, the importance of chemical fertilizers is self-evident. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the three main components of chemical fertilizers. China is basically self-sufficient in the first two, but it has a huge gap in potassium fertilizer. Potassium salt is the main raw material for the production of potash fertilizer. However, China's potassium salt reserves only account for 5% of the world's, but it has to achieve 15% of its production capacity. The contradiction between supply and demand is very prominent. According to ITBEAR, more than half of China's cultivated land requires potassium fertilizer supplementation, especially in some major agricultural areas, such as Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Hainan, etc., where soil potassium content is generally low. The shortage of potassium fertilizer not only affects plant metabolism, but also increases the risk of pests, diseases and lodging, posing a serious threat to crop yields. In 2017, the use of counterfeit and inferior chemical fertilizers in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, resulted in a significant reduction in potato production on 20,000 acres. This incident once again highlighted the importance of potash fertilizers to agricultural production. In 2023, China's potassium salt import volume will reach 11.57 million tons, and the import value will reach 463.61 billion US dollars, showing China's huge demand in the global potash salt market. However, global potash resources are highly monopolized, mainly concentrated in countries such as Canada, Belarus, Russia and the United States, which makes China lack bargaining power on potash fertilizer imports.
China’s potash resourcesGlobal potassium salt resources
As an important partner of China, Laos has played an active role in the supply of potassium salt. Chinese companies have made significant progress in potash investment projects in Laos and are expected to become one of the important sources of potash fertilizer imports in China in the future. In addition, China is also actively seeking cooperation with other countries to further enrich potash fertilizer import channels.
1. As the world’s largest potash consumer, China is facing huge resource pressure. In order to ensure food security and sustainable agricultural development, China needs to improve its capabilities in overseas expansion, internationalization, competition for pricing power, and global governance. At the same time, China also needs to actively explore new potash resources and technological innovation to reduce its dependence on imported potash fertilizer.The above is the detailed content of How serious is potassium deficiency in China? The truth is heartbreaking!. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!