Assessment of Fertilizer Usage by Food Crops at the National Level

Abstract

Korea is one of countries that have high application rates of inorganic fertilizers. Recently, environmental pollution has been announced due to overuse of fertilizer. To reduce the fertilizer usage, agricultural policies in terms of environmental sustainability has been introduced since the 1990s. This study aims to investigate total fertilization rates by nutrients and food crops in 9 provinces of Korea. In results, the average of total fertilizer inputs (N-P2O5-K2O) was 18.3-11.2-12.7 kg 10a-1. Total fertilizer usage of potato was 35.5 kg 10a-1 as N that was higher than other crops. The order of contribution to total fertilizer use was inorganic fertilizer > compost > organic fertilizer. As a result, main concern of excess and use of fertilizers were focused on inorganic fertilizer. However, because of the high nutrient content of compost, the application rate of compost should be monitored and controlled. Therefore, long-term monitoring and proper training is required to understand nutrient characteristics of fertilizer and to reserve environmental sustainability in agriculture. Distribution of nutrient in food crops with different fertilization.