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Potassium for Sustainable Agriculture

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Soil Science: Agricultural and Environmental Prospectives

Abstract

Potassium (K) is the third most important plant nutrient required in higher amounts by plants. It plays role in charge balancing, osmotic adjustments and enzyme activation in plant cells. It is highly mobile in the plant because it is not the structural part of plant tissue, but is present in ionic form in the plants. Although about 2.3 % of the earth’s crust consist of K, but most of its parts bound with clay minerals and is not available to plants. Release of K from micaceous soils not only provides an essential plant element, but also converts mica into illite and vermiculite with more sites for K absorption. Therefore, K fertilization in such soils may cause K fixation and most of K applied become unavailable or slowly available to plants. Potassium is also named as a quality element because it improves the agricultural-product quality. Potassium also develops resistance against different environmental stresses and has ability to mitigate biotic and abiotic stresses developing immunity in the plants. In human and animal nutrition, K has significant role and its deficiency in humans can cause cardiovascular and nervous diseases. The ultimate source of K in human nutrition is the soil which provides K to plants and is then used by humans and animals. Potassium fertilizers need to be applied to the soils to replenish the exchangeable K and non-exchangeable K for sustainable soil fertility, otherwise severe deficiency of K may happen which will be even more difficult to cure. As K has strong interaction with clay minerals, therefore it is intensely recommended to apply K fertilizers based on soil mineralogy and K dynamics in the soil. Although K in soil is evaluated by three standard methods, including visual observations, soil analysis and plant tissue analysis, however, for sustainable agriculture site-specific K recommendations based on soil mineralogy are direly needed to have a better crop response and economical agricultural productions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil and Environmental Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Fauisalabad, 38040, Pakistan

    Abdul Wakeel & Mehreen Gul

  2. International Potash Institute, Industriesstrasse 31, CH-6300, Zug, Switzerland

    Abdul Wakeel

  3. Institut für Kulturpflanzenwissenschaften, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, 70593, Germany

    Christian Zörb

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Correspondence to Abdul Wakeel .

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  1. University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

    Khalid Rehman Hakeem

  2. Institute of Soil and Environmental Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Javaid Akhtar

  3. Institute of Soil and Environmental Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Sabir

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Wakeel, A., Gul, M., Zörb, C. (2016). Potassium for Sustainable Agriculture. In: Hakeem, K., Akhtar, J., Sabir, M. (eds) Soil Science: Agricultural and Environmental Prospectives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34451-5_7

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