Photo Credit: James Baltz
Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Global Fertilizer Application Dataset
The Core Concept: A new, comprehensive global dataset tracks crop-specific application rates for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers across 156 crops, pastures, and forests from 1980 to 2022.
Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike previous data that existed as fragments or isolated snapshots, this research provides the first continuous, global record of all three major macronutrients at the individual crop level, utilizing custom imputation software to synthesize 800,000 data points.
Origin/History: Developed over six years and published in Environmental Research Letters in 2026, the project was led by the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and the International Fertilizer Association.
Major Frameworks/Components:
- Data Aggregation and Imputation: Compiled 800,000 existing data points and utilized custom software to fill gaps, creating a cohesive 42-year record.
- Macronutrient Tracking: Specifically maps the application rates of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).
- Crop-Specific Resolution: Details fertilizer use across 156 distinct crops, plus pasturelands and forests, rather than broad regional averages.
- Trend Identification: Highlights a doubling in global fertilizer consumption since 1980, while identifying significant regional disparities (e.g., a ten-fold gap in nitrogen application rates).
- Usage Corrections: Documents historical over-users (e.g., parts of Europe and China) reducing rates, and historically under-resourced areas (e.g., Ethiopia and Vietnam) increasing usage, while identifying areas like sub-Saharan Africa where enhanced yields require increased application.
Branch of Science: Agronomy, Environmental Science, Data Science, and Agricultural Economics.
Future Application: The dataset and accompanying software will enable nations to design highly targeted nutrient management strategies, optimizing crop yields while minimizing financial waste, fertilizer imports, and environmental damage.
Why It Matters: Balancing fertilizer use is critical for global food security and environmental sustainability; chronic underuse limits food production and farmer income, while excessive use causes soil acidification, oceanic dead zones, and the release of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
Global consumption of fertilizer has doubled since 1980, but some regions that have historically overused fertilizer, including China and parts of Europe, have taken steps to reduce their use. These 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 the years 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 revealed the following:
- The global consumption of fertilizers has at least doubled since 1980, though there are more than tenfold 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 toward 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 yields if they adopted improved fertilization 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, which prevents crops from getting the nutrients they need, and in nutrient runoff, which can lead to dead zones in the ocean. Excess fertilizer can also convert into nitrous oxide, which is approximately 300 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. 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.”
Additional information: 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.
Published in journal: Environmental Research Letters
Title: Diverse trajectories of global fertilizer use in the post-Green Revolution period
Authors: Deepak K Ray, Tek B Sapkota, and Achim Dobermann
Source/Credit: University of Minnesota
Edited by: Scientific Frontline
Reference Number: agri091426_01